Ranger Bryan J, Lombardi Allison, Kwon Susie, Loeb Mary, Cho Hayoung, He Keshi, Wei Donglai, Park Jinhee
Department of Engineering, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA.
William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA.
Acta Paediatr. 2025 Jan;114(1):14-23. doi: 10.1111/apa.17423. Epub 2024 Sep 18.
This scoping review aims to assess the utility of ultrasound as a prospective tool in measuring body composition and nutritional status in the paediatric population. We provide a comprehensive summary of the existing literature, identify gaps, and propose future research directions.
We conducted a systematic scoping review following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews guidelines. This involved screening titles and abstracts of relevant studies, followed by a detailed full-text review and extraction of pertinent data.
We identified and synthesised 34 articles. The review revealed that while ultrasound has been used to assess body composition and bone properties in children, significant gaps remain in the literature. These include limited studies on ultrasound performance, insufficient attention to relevant sample characteristics, reliance on manual image measurements, and limited sample diversity.
Point-of-care ultrasound shows significant promise for assessing paediatric body composition and nutritional status. To validate and enhance its effectiveness, further research is needed. Future studies should include larger and more diverse patient cohorts and conduct longitudinal investigations to evaluate nutritional interventions. Additionally, developing artificial intelligence (AI) for standardising and automating data interpretation will be crucial in improving the accuracy and efficiency of ultrasound assessments.
本综述旨在评估超声作为一种前瞻性工具在测量儿科人群身体成分和营养状况方面的效用。我们提供了现有文献的全面总结，找出差距，并提出未来的研究方向。
我们按照《系统综述与Meta分析扩展版（PRISMA）范围综述指南》进行了系统的范围综述。这包括筛选相关研究的标题和摘要，随后进行详细的全文审查并提取相关数据。
我们识别并综合了34篇文章。该综述表明，虽然超声已被用于评估儿童的身体成分和骨骼特性，但文献中仍存在重大差距。这些差距包括对超声性能的研究有限、对相关样本特征的关注不足、依赖手动图像测量以及样本多样性有限。
即时超声在评估儿科身体成分和营养状况方面显示出巨大潜力。为了验证并提高其有效性，需要进一步研究。未来的研究应纳入更大且更多样化的患者队列，并进行纵向调查以评估营养干预措施。此外，开发用于标准化和自动化数据解读的人工智能对于提高超声评估的准确性和效率至关重要。
