The Association Between C-Reactive Protein Levels and Pediatric Appendicitis Score and the Severity of Appendicitis in Children.

BACKGROUND: Acute appendicitis is a common cause of abdominal pain leading to emergent abdominal surgery in children. C-reactive protein (CRP), an inflammatory marker typically elevated in acute appendicitis, and Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS), a clinical scoring system used for the diagnosis of appendicitis, have the potential to predict the severity of inflammation of the appendix. This may be useful in helping the physician make a treatment plan prior to surgery. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess whether CRP value and PAS differ with the extent of inflammation of the appendix seen on histologic examination. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study of patients diagnosed with acute appendicitis via computed tomography or ultrasound. Enrolled patients had CRP levels drawn, PAS calculated, and appendix pathology reviewed. Appendix pathology was categorized by the pathologist on the basis of the level of inflammation: simple, suppurative, gangrenous, and perforated. RESULTS: One hundred sixty-three patients were enrolled. CRP levels and PAS were statistically different (p < 0.002) among the four pathology classifications. Patients with simple appendicitis (n = 3) had a mean CRP of 2.95 mg/L and PAS of 3.9, patients with suppurative appendicitis (n = 99) had a mean CRP of 26.89 mg/L and PAS of 6.5, patients with gangrenous appendicitis (n = 56) had a mean CRP of 91.11 mg/L and PAS of 7.5, and patients with perforated appendicitis (n = 6) had a mean CRP of 154.17 mg/L and PAS of 7. The results remained statistically significant (p < 0.002) after adjusting for age, race, and sex. When combined-PAS ≥ 8 and CRP level > 40 mg/L-the specificity of complicated appendicitis was 91.2% and positive predictive value was 72.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Higher CRP levels and PAS were associated with increased histologic inflammation of the appendix. This study provides preliminary evidence that CRP and PAS could potentially assist in treatment decisions for appendicitis.

[Association of the Pediatric Appendicitis Score with hospital stay and postoperative complications]. / Asociación de la Escala pediátrica de apendicitis con la estancia hospitalaria y las complicaciones postoperatorias.

Background: Acute appendicitis (AA) is the most common surgical emergency in children. Assessment scales improve the timely detection of cases. Objective: To evaluate the association of the Pediatric Appendicitis Scale (PAS) with hospital stay (HS) and postoperative complications of appendectomy. Material and methods: Observational, analytical, longitudinal and retrolective study. Patients from 2 months to 15 years of age, without comorbidities, who underwent appendectomy for complicated (CAA) and uncomplicated (UCAA) acute appendicitis were included. PAS score prior to an appendectomy was obtained, and the time of HS and postoperative complications were evaluated. Results: 64 patients were evaluated, age 8 (IQR 8-12) years, PAS score 6 (IQR 4-8). The time from the onset of symptoms to the request for care in the emergency department was shorter (p < 0.0001) and the total neutrophil count was higher (p = 0.001) in the CAA group. No difference was shown in the PAS score between patients with CAA and UCAA (6 [4-7] vs. 7 [4-8], p = 0.087]. A PAS score ≥ 7 was associated with an increased risk of prolonged HE (p = 0.007), but was not associated with postoperative complications. The PAS score alongside the time elapsed from the onset of symptoms until the assistance in the Pediatric Emergency Department, were associated with an increased risk of prolonged HE (R2 = 0.2246, p = 0.003). Conclusions: A PAS score ≥ 7 is associated with prolonged HS, likewise, the PAS score alongside the time elapsed between the onset of symptoms and assistance in emergency care is associated with prolonged HS.

Introducción: la apendicitis aguda (AA) es la patología quirúrgica de urgencia más común en niños. Las escalas de valoración mejoran la detección oportuna de casos. Objetivo: evaluar la asociación de la Escala pediátrica de apendicitis (PAS) con la estancia hospitalaria (EH) y las complicaciones postoperatorias de apendicectomía. Material y métodos: estudio observacional, analítico, longitudinal y retrolectivo. Se incluyeron pacientes de 2 meses a 15 años, sin comorbilidades, intervenidos por apendicectomía por apendicitis aguda complicada (AAC) y no complicada (AANC). Se obtuvo el puntaje PAS previo a apendicectomía y se evaluó la EH y complicaciones postoperatorias. Resultados: se evaluaron 64 pacientes, edad 8 (RIC 8-12) años, puntaje de PAS 6 (RIC 4-8). El tiempo desde el inicio de los síntomas hasta la atención en urgencias fue menor (p < 0.0001) y la cuenta de neutrófilos totales fue mayor (p = 0.001) en el Grupo de AAC. No hubo diferencia en el puntaje PAS entre pacientes con AAC y AANC (6 [4-7] frente a 7 [4-8], p = 0.087). El puntaje PAS ≥ 7 se asoció con incremento del riesgo de EH prolongada (p = 0.007), pero no con complicaciones postoperatorias. El puntaje PAS en conjunto con el tiempo transcurrido desde el inicio de los síntomas hasta la atención en Urgencias Pediátricas se asoció a incremento del riesgo de EH prolongada (R2 = 0.2246, p = 0.003). Conclusiones: el puntaje PAS ≥ 7 se asocia con EH prolongada, y el puntaje PAS en conjunto con el tiempo transcurrido entre el inicio de síntomas y la atención en urgencias se asocia a EH prolongada.

Pediatric Appendicitis Score or Ultrasonography? In Search of a Better Diagnostic Tool in Indian Children with Lower Abdominal Pain.

OBJECTIVES: To prospectively assess the performance of pediatric appendicitis score (PAS) in diagnosing acute appendicitis in the children with lower abdominal pain and correlated with ultrasound findings; and to assess the impact of the PAS on clinical outcome and its efficacy in differentiating between complicated and uncomplicated appendicitis. METHODS: A prospective study was done which included cases of lower abdominal pain. Appendectomy was done for PAS ≥ 6, and diagnosis was confirmed on histopathology. A receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve was created to assess the PAS performance. The sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of ultrasonography in diagnosing appendicitis were assessed, and analysis of agreement between ultrasonography and PAS score was done by kappa statistics. RESULTS: Of 260 cases with lower abdominal pain, 205 were suspected of having appendicitis. One hundred fifty-nine had PAS ≥ 6. There were 2/159 (1.26%) cases of negative appendectomies and 2/46 (4.34%) cases of missed appendicitis. The mean PAS was significantly higher in patients with appendicitis than in those without appendicitis. The area under the ROC curve was 0.9925. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive value of PAS were 98.74%, 95.65%, 95.7% and 95.65%, respectively. Complicated appendicitis had significantly more PAS, fever, and cough tenderness than uncomplicated appendicitis. The sensitivity and specificity of ultrasonography were 86.79% and 17.39%, respectively. Agreement between ultrasonography-proven appendicitis and PAS-dependent appendicitis was weak. CONCLUSION: PAS has high efficacy in diagnosing acute appendicitis. Clinical outcome was more favorable with the use of PAS. Ultrasonography should be used judiciously and in combination with clinical judgment.

Construction and application of a decision tree model for children with complicated appendicitis / 中国医师杂志

Objective:To establish a decision tree model of pediatric complicated appendicitis (CA) based on Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS) combined with inflammatory indicators, and to evaluate its clinical application efficacy in pediatrics.Methods:The clinical data of 544 children diagnosed with appendicitis in Children′s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from January 2018 to December 2021 was retrospectively analyzed. According to postoperative pathology, the children were divided into uncomplicated appendicitis group and CA group. The independent risk factors of CA were screened by univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis, and these parameters were included to establish the decision tree model. The accuracy of the decision tree model was verified by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.Results:Binary logistic regression analysis indicated that the PAS, C-reactive protein (CRP) and neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR) were identified as independent risk factors for complicated appendicitis in children (all P<0.05). PAS, CRP and NLR were included as covariables to construct the decision tree model and binary logistic regression model for predicting CA. The decision tree demonstrated an overall accuracy of 79.2% with a sensitivity of 86.7% and specificity of 71.9%, and achieved an area under curve (AUC) of 0.821(95% CI: 0.786-0.857). The binary logistic regression model had a sensitivity of 79.6% and specificity of 69.1%, with an overall accuracy of 75.1% and achieved an AUC of 0.808(95% CI: 0.770-0.845). Conclusions:The decision tree model based on PAS score combined with CRP, NLR is a simple, intuitive and effective tool , which can provide pediatric emergency physicians a reliable basis for diagnosis of pediatric CA.

Pre-Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pediatric Acute Appendicitis: Risk Factors Model and Diagnosis Modality in a Developing Low-Income Country.

PURPOSE: Pediatric acute appendicitis has a stable incidence rate in Western countries with an annual change of -0.36%. However, a sharp increase was observed in the Asian region. The Indonesian Health Department reveals appendicitis as the fourth most infectious disease, with more than 64,000 patients annually. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify and evaluate the risk factors and diagnostic modalities for accurate diagnosis and early treatment. This study also clarifies the usage of pediatric appendicitis score (PAS) for children <5 years of age. METHODS: The current study employed a cross-sectional design with purposive sampling through demographic and PAS questionnaires with ultrasound sonography (USG) results. The analysis was performed using the chi-square and Mann-Whitney tests and logistic regression. RESULTS: This study included 21 qualified patients with an average age of 6.76±4.679 years, weighing 21.72±10.437 kg, and who had been hospitalized for 4.24±1.513 days in Siloam Teaching Hospital. Compared to the surgical gold standard, PAS and USG have moderate sensitivity and specificity. Bodyweight and stay duration were significant for appendicitis (p<0.05); however, all were confounders in the multivariate regression analysis. Incidentally, a risk prediction model was generated with an area under the curve of 72.73%, sensitivity of 100.0%, specificity of 54.5%, and a cut-off value of 151. CONCLUSION: PAS outperforms USG in the sensitivity of diagnosing appendicitis, whereas USG outperforms PAS in terms of specificity. This study demonstrates the use of PAS in children under 5 years old. Meanwhile, no risk factors were significant in multivariate pediatric acute appendicitis risk factors.

Combining Ultrasound with a Pediatric Appendicitis Score to Distinguish Complicated from Uncomplicated Appendicitis in a Pediatric Population.

BACKGROUND: The accurate diagnosis of complicated appendicitis has been improved by using various diagnostic modalities. However, no preoperative diagnostic method could completely confirm the results. Therefore, preoperative diagnosis of complicated appendicitis to have the right management is still a huge challenge. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of ultrasound combined with pediatric appendicitis score for differentiation between acute uncomplicated appendicitis and acute complicated appendicitis in a pediatric population. METHODS: We prospectively evaluated 120 pediatric patients who underwent surgery for acute appendicitis from November 2017 to June 2019. Pediatric appendicitis score (PAS) was calculated and ultrasound (US) was performed before surgery. The histopathology of phlegmonous appendicitis corresponds to uncomplicated appendicitis (AUA), while gangrenous appendicitis and perforation are classified as complicated appendicitis (ACA). RESULTS: Histopathologically, the results provided a diagnosis of acute appendicitis including 86 (71.7%) patients with AUA and 34 (28.3%) children with ACA. US findings showed a sensitivity of 23.5%, the specificity of 95.4%, PPV of 66.7%, NPV of 75.9%, and an accuracy of 75%. PAS of 8 was found to be the most appropriate cutoff point compatible with ACA; it resulted in a sensitivity of 76.5% and a specificity of 84.1%. Combining ultrasound with a pediatric appendicitis score resulted in a higher specificity to distinguish complicated from uncomplicated appendicitis when compared with ultrasound or PAS solely. CONCLUSIONS: the US is highly specific but nonsensitive for detecting complicated pediatric appendicitis. Combining ultrasound with pediatric appendicitis is a very good concept to distinguish complicated from uncomplicated appendicitis in a pediatric population.

Usefulness of the pediatric appendicitis score for assessing the severity of acute appendicitis in children.

BACKGROUND: We investigated relationships between the Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS) and pathological progression and disease severity in pediatric acute appendicitis. METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 72 children who underwent surgery for acute appendicitis. We divided them into groups: simple appendicitis (n = 28) or complicated appendicitis (n = 44). We compared the influence of age, body temperature, blood test findings, hospitalization period, number of complications, and PAS between the groups. We calculated the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of the PAS for diagnosing complicated appendicitis. A receiver operating characteristic curve was constructed to evaluate the cut-off value for diagnosing complicated appendicitis. To assess the severity of acute appendicitis, we divided the patients into groups according to that cut-off value. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences in the PAS between simple appendicitis and complicated appendicitis (5.8 versus 7.9). The receiver operating characteristic curve indicated a PAS cut-off value of 8. A PAS ≥ 8 had a sensitivity of 73%, a specificity of 89%, a positive predictive value of 91%, and a negative predictive value of 68%. A PAS ≥ 8 was associated with significantly longer hospitalization and more complications than a PAS < 8. CONCLUSIONS: The PAS may be associated with pathological progression and disease severity in appendicitis.

Survey of efficacy of pediatric appendicitis score in Iranian patients less than 18 years old referred to the emergency department.

INTRODUCTION: Abdominal pain, in particular appendicitis, is a common cause of emergency department visits in children. Therefore, early diagnosis is very important. There are different scoring systems for the diagnosis of appendicitis. This study is the first study to evaluate the performance and accuracy of pediatric appendicitis score (PAS) in Iranian children with abdominal pain in emergency departments. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study of children under 18 years with suspected appendicitis who were referred to the emergency medicine department of hospitals affiliated to SBMU during 2015. Acute appendicitis was determined according to pathological findings, and final PAS scores were calculated for all children. With statistical analysis, comparison between two groups was calculated and the diagnostic accuracy of PAS score was estimated. RESULTS: 88 children with mean age of 10.5 ± 3 were studied. According to clinical examination 58 of the children were suspected to have acute appendicitis and 30 others were healthy. In current study, the diagnostic accuracy and precision of PAS at cutoff of 5.5 in patients younger than 18 years admitted to the emergency department with suspected acute appendicitis was 91% and 92%, respectively. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were 93.88%, 86.21% and 92%, 89.29%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The results of current study showed that PAS has high diagnostic predictive value for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis in children under 18 years and due to the advantages listed for this score, its use is recommended for children in emergencies.

La puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica en la atención primaria de salud / Pediatric Appendicitis Score in Primary Healthcare

Introducción: La apendicitis aguda es la enfermedad que mayores cirugías de urgencia demanda en el mundo y su diagnóstico adolece de uniformidad de criterios. Objetivo: Evaluar la efectividad de la puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica en la atención primaria de salud. Método: Se realizó un estudio cuantitativo, transversal de evaluación de prueba diagnóstica, con enmascaramiento doble ciego. El universo estuvo constituido 31 pacientes, de hasta quince años de edad, con diagnóstico clínico de apendicitis aguda tratados en la Policlínica Universitaria René Vallejo Ortiz, Manzanillo, Granma. A todo paciente con sospecha diagnóstica de apendicitis aguda se le aplicó la puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica antes de su remisión y evaluación por el cirujano pediatra y se determinó la capacidad diagnóstica de la puntuación. Resultados: La edad media fue 12,41 años. Predominó el sexo masculino (61,29 por ciento). El 100 por ciento, 93,55 por ciento y el 87,1 por ciento de los pacientes tuvieron un diagnóstico clínico, operatorio e histopatológico de apendicitis aguda, respectivamente en el nivel secundario de salud. La puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica tuvo una sensibilidad de 96,96 por ciento, una especificidad de 50 por ciento, un valor predictivo positivo de 92,86 por ciento y un valor predictivo negativo de 66,67 por ciento. Conclusiones: La puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica presentó patrones de sensibilidad y especificidad que la hacen recomendable para su uso en la atención primaria de salud(AU)

Introduction: Acute appendicitis is the disease demanding the biggest emergency surgeries worldwide and its diagnosis lacks criteria uniformity. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Pediatric Appendicitis Score in primary healthcare. Method: A quantitative, cross-sectional and double-masked study of diagnostic test evaluation was performed. The study population consisted of 31 patients, up to the age of fifteen years, with clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis treated in René Vallejo Ortiz University Polyclinic of Manzanillo, Granma. All patients with suspected acute appendicitis were applied the Pediatric Appendicitis Score before referral and evaluation by the pediatric surgeon, and the diagnostic capacity of the score was determined. Results: The average age was 12.41 years. The male sex predominated (61.29 percent). 100 percent, 93.55 percent and 87.1 percent of the patients had a clinical, operative and histopathological diagnosis of acute appendicitis, respectively, at the secondary level of healthcare. The pediatric appendicitis score had sensitivity of 96.96 percent, specificity of 50 percent, a positive predictive value of 92.86 percent, and a negative predictive value of 66.67 percent. Conclusions: The Pediatric Appendicitis Score presented patterns of sensitivity and specificity that make it recommendable for usage in primary health care(AU)

La puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica en la atención primaria de salud / Pediatric Appendicitis Score in Primary Healthcare

Introducción: La apendicitis aguda es la enfermedad que mayores cirugías de urgencia demanda en el mundo y su diagnóstico adolece de uniformidad de criterios. Objetivo: Evaluar la efectividad de la puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica en la atención primaria de salud. Método: Se realizó un estudio cuantitativo, transversal de evaluación de prueba diagnóstica, con enmascaramiento doble ciego. El universo estuvo constituido 31 pacientes, de hasta quince años de edad, con diagnóstico clínico de apendicitis aguda tratados en la Policlínica Universitaria René Vallejo Ortiz, Manzanillo, Granma. A todo paciente con sospecha diagnóstica de apendicitis aguda se le aplicó la puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica antes de su remisión y evaluación por el cirujano pediatra y se determinó la capacidad diagnóstica de la puntuación. Resultados: La edad media fue 12,41 años. Predominó el sexo masculino (61,29 por ciento). El 100 por ciento, 93,55 por ciento y el 87,1 por ciento de los pacientes tuvieron un diagnóstico clínico, operatorio e histopatológico de apendicitis aguda, respectivamente en el nivel secundario de salud. La puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica tuvo una sensibilidad de 96,96 por ciento, una especificidad de 50 por ciento, un valor predictivo positivo de 92,86 por ciento y un valor predictivo negativo de 66,67 por ciento. Conclusiones: La puntuación de apendicitis pediátrica presentó patrones de sensibilidad y especificidad que la hacen recomendable para su uso en la atención primaria de salud(AU)

Introduction: Acute appendicitis is the disease demanding the biggest emergency surgeries worldwide and its diagnosis lacks criteria uniformity. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of the Pediatric Appendicitis Score in primary healthcare. Method: A quantitative, cross-sectional and double-masked study of diagnostic test evaluation was performed. The study population consisted of 31 patients, up to the age of fifteen years, with clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis treated in René Vallejo Ortiz University Polyclinic of Manzanillo, Granma. All patients with suspected acute appendicitis were applied the Pediatric Appendicitis Score before referral and evaluation by the pediatric surgeon, and the diagnostic capacity of the score was determined. Results: The average age was 12.41 years. The male sex predominated (61.29 percent). 100 percent, 93.55 percent and 87.1 percent of the patients had a clinical, operative and histopathological diagnosis of acute appendicitis, respectively, at the secondary level of healthcare. The pediatric appendicitis score had sensitivity of 96.96 percent, specificity of 50 percent, a positive predictive value of 92.86 percent, and a negative predictive value of 66.67 percent. Conclusions: The Pediatric Appendicitis Score presented patterns of sensitivity and specificity that make it recommendable for usage in primary health care(AU)

Prospective evaluation of a clinical pathway for suspected appendicitis.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of a clinical pathway for suspected appendicitis combining the Samuel's pediatric appendicitis score (PAS) and selective use of ultrasonography (US) as the primary imaging modality. METHODS: Prospective, observational cohort study conducted at an urban, academic pediatric emergency department. After initial evaluation, patients were determined to be at low (PAS 1-3), intermediate (PAS 4-7), or high (PAS 8-10) risk for appendicitis. Low-risk patients were discharged with telephone follow-up. High-risk patients received immediate surgical consultation. Patients at intermediate risk for appendicitis underwent US. RESULTS: Of the 196 patients enrolled, 65 (33.2%) had appendicitis. An initial PAS of 1-3 was noted in 44 (22.4%), 4-7 in 119 (60.7%), and 8-10 in 33 (16.9%) patients. Ultrasonography was performed in 128 (65.3%) patients, and 48 (37.5%) were positive. An abdominal computed tomography scan was requested by the surgical consultants in 13 (6.6%) patients. The negative appendectomy rate was 3 of 68 (4.4%). Follow-up was established on 190 of 196 (96.9%) patients. Overall diagnostic accuracy of the pathway was 94% (95% confidence interval [CI] 91%-97%) with a sensitivity of 92.3% (95% CI 83.0%-97.5%), specificity of 94.7% (95% CI 89.3%-97.8%), likelihood ratio (+) 17.3 (95% CI 8.4-35.6) and likelihood ratio (-) 0.08 (95% CI 0.04-0.19). CONCLUSIONS: Our protocol demonstrates high sensitivity and specificity for diagnosis of appendicitis in children. Institutions should consider investing in resources that increase the availability of expertise in pediatric US. Standardization of care may decrease radiation exposure associated with use of computed tomography scans.

A Case of Acute Appendicitis of Children which its Symptoms and Signs were Self-disappeared

Acute appendicitis is a disease resulting from inflammation of the appendix. The most common symptoms and physical examinations are the following: right lower abdomen pain, tenderness, rebound tenderness, nausea, vomiting, and fever. The clinician makes a diagnosis based on these symptoms and physicals along with ultrasonography or radiologic imaging, such as computed tomography (CT), forviewing of the inflamed appendix. In this case a seven-year-old-male visited the Emergency Room with abdominal pain and tendernessin in the right lower quadrant, whose symptoms disappeared spontaneously without treatment, although the bedside ultrasonography showed an inflamed appendix. The patient underwent surgery and the operation findings indicated a concordant diagnosis. We report this case as the cardinal symptom of acute appendicitis has been right lower quadrant pain for many years, which may lead to misdiagnosis.

Developing and evaluating an automated appendicitis risk stratification algorithm for pediatric patients in the emergency department.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate a proposed natural language processing (NLP) and machine-learning based automated method to risk stratify abdominal pain patients by analyzing the content of the electronic health record (EHR). METHODS: We analyzed the EHRs of a random sample of 2100 pediatric emergency department (ED) patients with abdominal pain, including all with a final diagnosis of appendicitis. We developed an automated system to extract relevant elements from ED physician notes and lab values and to automatically assign a risk category for acute appendicitis (high, equivocal, or low), based on the Pediatric Appendicitis Score. We evaluated the performance of the system against a manually created gold standard (chart reviews by ED physicians) for recall, specificity, and precision. RESULTS: The system achieved an average F-measure of 0.867 (0.869 recall and 0.863 precision) for risk classification, which was comparable to physician experts. Recall/precision were 0.897/0.952 in the low-risk category, 0.855/0.886 in the high-risk category, and 0.854/0.766 in the equivocal-risk category. The information that the system required as input to achieve high F-measure was available within the first 4 h of the ED visit. CONCLUSIONS: Automated appendicitis risk categorization based on EHR content, including information from clinical notes, shows comparable performance to physician chart reviewers as measured by their inter-annotator agreement and represents a promising new approach for computerized decision support to promote application of evidence-based medicine at the point of care.

Pediatric appendicitis score: A retrospective analysis.

AIMS: Evaluation of the pediatric appendicitis score (PAS), in all patients who had an appendicectomy over a one-year period. METHODS: Retrospective study of 56 patients aged 4-15 years, who underwent an emergency appendicectomy. PAS was applied and patients were divided according to the PAS protocol into high probability and low probability groups. These results were then correlated with histology. RESULTS: The PAS had sensitivity 0.87, specificity 0.59, positive predictive value 0.83, and negative predictive value 0.67. The negative appendicectomy rate would have been reduced to 17%, but five patients with appendicitis would have been denied early surgical treatment and may have been discharged. CONCLUSIONS: The PAS cannot be recommended as it would lead to an unacceptable risk of wrongly discharging or delaying necessary surgery in 13% of patients with appendicitis.

A Clinical Score and Ultrasonography for the Diagnosis of Childhood Acute Appendicits

Diagnosis of acute appendicitis in children is sometimes difficult. The aim of this study is to validate a clinical scoring system and ultrasonography for the early diagnosis and treatment of appendicitis in childhood. This is a prospective study on 59 children admitted with abdominal pain at St. Mary's Hospital, the Catholic University of Korea from July 2002 to August 2003. We applied Madan Samuel's Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS) based on preoperative history, physical examination, laboratory finding and ultrasonography. This study was designed as follows: patients with score 5 or less were observed regardless of the positive ultrasonographic finding, patients with score 6 and 7 were decided according to the ultrasonogram and patients above score 8 were operated in spite of negative ultrasonographic finding. The patients were divided into two groups, appendicitis (group A) and non-appendicitis groups (group B). Group A consisted of 36 cases and Group B, 23 cases. Mean score of group A was 8.75 and group B was 6.13 (p<0.001). Comparing the diagnostic methods in acute appendicitis by surveying sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and accuracy, PAS gave 1.0000, 0.3043, 0.6923, 1.0000, and 0.7288, and ultrasonography gave 0.7778, 0.9130, 0.9333, 0.7241, and 0.8300 while the combined test gave 1.0000, 0.8696, 0.9231, 1.0000, and 0.9490, respectively. Negative laparotomy rate was 3 %. In conclusion, the combination of PAS and ultrasonography is a more accurate diagnostic tool than either PAS or ultrasonography.