Muhammad Nadeem Hameed, Tariq Jaffar Qureshi, Waqar Hussain.
Association of Recurrent Abdominal Pain with Visibly Enlarged Mesenteric Lymph Nodes on Ultrasonography.
Pak Paed J Jan ;42(4):255-60.

Introduction: Recurrent abdominal pain is a common distressing symptom in children. Due to diversity of underlying causes, this symptom complex is associated with parental anxiety, psychological disturbance of children and huge cost of serial unnecessary investigations. Ultrasonography (USG) is a non-invasive tool frequently utilized to investigate this symptom in children. Visualization of mesenteric lymph nodes is a common finding on USG examination, which needs careful interpretation. Objective: To compare the association of visibly enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes on USG in children with and without recurrent abdominal pain. Study Design: Case-control study Place of Study: Departments of Pediatrics, Shalamar Medical & Dental College, Lahore Duration of study: 1stMarch 2017 till 30th September 2017 Sampling Technique: Non probability consecutive sampling Materials & Methods: Sixty three children of both genders, between 4 and 15 year of age presenting with recurrent abdominal pain were included whereas 37 patients referred for other reasons were taken as controls. All children were examined through abdominal and pelvic ultrasonography by the same trained radiologist. Complete details of visible mesenteric lymph nodes were recorded including number, maximum transverse diameter, shape, region involved, tenderness and Doppler accentuation. Results: Boys were major proportion (66.7%) of study population. Forty five (71.4%) out of 63 children with RAP and 21 (56.8%) out of 37 controls had detectable lymph nodes on USG. In majority of cases, lymphadenopathy was confined to umbilical region; however shape, size and number had no discriminative significance among two groups. Moreover, no statistical significance was ascertained by correlating finding of lymphadenopathy in two groups of study population (p = 0.39 and 0.16). Conclusion: Visibly enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes are not significantly associated with recurrent abdominal pain in children. Abbreviations: Mesenteric Lymph Nodes (MLNs), Recurrent Abdominal Pain (RAP), Ultrasonography (USG).

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