Table 2.
Duration of symptoms, clinical signs, white blood cell (WBC) count, differential count*, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and ultrasonography findings in acute appendicitis and abdominal pain†
| Finding (median, range) in the group with |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnostic method | acute appendicitis | abdominal pain | P |
| Duration of symptoms (h) | 24.0 (4.0-168.0) | 24.0 (2.0-120.0) | 0.577‡ |
| Clinical signs: | |||
| positive | 46 | 22 | 0.002§ |
| negative | 3 | 11 | |
| WBC (x109/L) | 15.1 (5.9-31.6) | 10.6 (4.7-25.5) | 0.008║ |
| Neutrophil granulocytes (%) | 76 (54-91) | 73 (40-93) | 0.328║ |
| Band neutrophil granulocytes (%) | 4 (0-24) | 0 (0-14) | 0.105‡ |
| CRP (mg/L) | 21.0 (5.0-137.0) | 9.0 (5.0-148.0) | 0.038‡ |
| IL-6 (ng/L) | 11.8 (5.0-1000.0) | 5.0 (2.0-59.2) | <0.001‡ |
| Ultrasonography: | |||
| positive | 32 TP | 1 FP | <0.001§ |
| negative | 3 FN | 20 TN | |
| not assessed | 14 | 12 | |
*Percentage of neutrophil granulocytes and band neutrophil granulocytes.
†Abbreviations: acute appendicitis – children with acute appendicitis; abdominal pain – children with diagnosis of non-specific abdominal pain or sonographic mesenteric lymphadenitis; TP – true positive; FP – false positive; FN – false negative; TN – true negative.
‡Unpaired Mann-Whitney test.
§Fisher exact test.
║Unpaired t-test.