Ultrasound for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis: A hospital based study

Aim: to evaluate the role of ultrasound for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and decrease the negative appendicectomy. methods: this comparative cross-sectional study was carried out at combined military hospital,quetta from december 2007 to may 2008. sixty patients consecutive adult patients (44 male and 16 female; the age range was 13 to 50) were examined by appendiceal transabdominal sonography with tissue harmonic imaging. after consent,history and clinical examination,ultrasound was performed. the detection rate,outer appendiceal diameter,intraluminal content,and location of the appendix were estimated. patients were divided in appendicitis and non appendicitis groups and us detection was compared with age,sex and other variables. results: patients fulfilling inclusion criteria were included in the study. the results prove that ultrasound has a sensitivity of 82.85%,specificity of 87.50%,positive predictive value of 90.62% and negative predictive value of 77.77%. conclusion: ultrasonography should be used as very important adjunct to clinical examination,as it increases the sensitivity,specificity and accuracy for diagnosing appendicitis.