nec x ray vs normal：Imaging for Diagnosis and Assessment of Necrotizing ...

Necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) is inflammatory bowel necrosis of preterm and critically ill infants. The disease is seen in 6–10% of preterm infants who weigh less than 1500 g at birth and carries considerable morbidity, mortality, and healthcare cost burden. Efforts focused on timely mitigation remain restricted due to challenges in early diagnosis as clinical features, and available laboratory tests remain nonspecific until late in the disease. There is renewed interest in the radiological and sonographic assessment of intestinal diseases due to technological advances making them safe, cost-efficient, and supporting Web-based transmission of images, thereby reducing time to diagnosis by disease experts. Most of our experience has been with plain abdominal radiography, which shows characteristic features such as pneumatosis intestinalis in up to 50–60% of patients. Many patients with advanced disease may also show features such as portal venous gas and pneumoperit...