A prospective comparative study of Alvarado score and ultrasound imaging in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis

Abstract

Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a ruptured appendix include widespread, painful inflammation of the inner lining of the abdominal wall and sepsis [1]. Most of the appendicitis patients were in the age group of 31-40 years followed by 41-50 year age group. In the present study 60% of the cases were male and 40% cases were belongs to female gender. Of the 50 patients, 16 patients had score below 7 in which 12 patients had score between 5-7 and 4 patients had score between 1-4. USG showed 50% sensitivity, 50% specificity, 75% positive predictive value, 25% negative predictive value and 50% accuracy in Alvarado score of 1-4. In the score range of 5-7, USG showed 95.24% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 100% positive predictive value, 50% negative predictive value and 95.45% accuracy. In the score of more than 7, USG showed 67.80% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 100% positive predictive value, 66.67% negative predictive value and 68.33% accuracy.