β Scribed by Piero Gimondo; Paoletta Mirk; Agostino La Bella; Glauco Messina; Caterina Pizzi
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
We present the results of a prospective study on 122 patients referred for suspected acute appendicitis. In total, 77 patients had surgically proven appendicitis. Of these 77 patients, sonography showed typical signs of appendicitis and/or peri-appendicular abscess in 57 cases (true positives); in the remaining 20 patients neither the inflamed appendix nor any related abnormal finding could be detected pre-operatively (false negatives). Forty-five patients were subsequently shown to have other disorders (related to the urinary or digestive tract, or to the female reproductive system); the final diagnoses were based on surgical findings in 16 patients, and on a combination of clinical, imaging and laboratory findings in the remaining 29 patients. In all these patients, no sonographic evidence of appendicitis was detected (true negatives), whereas in 33 cases the US exam was able to detect abnormal findings related to other conditions, thus suggesting a correct diagnosis. In the authors' experience, sonography has a good accuracy in diagnosing acute appendicitis. The sensitivity (75%) and specificity (100%o) values were similar among the different examiners and in overall agreement with the literature data.
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