The effectiveness of ultrasound imaging in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis

Abstract EN

Acute appendicitis is still one of the most common surgical abdominal emergencies.

Ultrasound could increase the diagnostic accuracy in those patients presented with unclear symptoms and signs of acute appendicitis.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of U / S in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

This prospective study was conducted at the department of general surgery in AL-Sader Teaching Hospital from June 2008 to October 2011.

It included 129 patients suspected to have acute appendicitis.

Ultrasound (U / S) was done for all these patients.

There were (66) males represent (51 %) and (63) females represent (49 %).

These patients are grouped according to gender, age, signs & symptoms, laboratory tests, operative finding, the result of U / S examination and histopathologically result.

Ultrasound was positive in (111) patients (86 %) and negative in (18) patients (14 %).

Six patients out of (18) had true negative results while (12) patients were false negative.

Ultrasound sensitivity was (90 %) in diagnosing acute appendicitis, specificity was (66.6 %), accuracy rate was (88.3 %), positive predictive value (97.2 %) and negative predictive value (33.3 %).

It is concluded that U / S is a useful tool in providing valuable information for the diagnosis of suspected cases of acute appendicitis.