Using pentraxin-3 for diagnosing acute appendicitis and predicting perforation: A prospective comparative methodological study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In this study, we aimed to investigate the diagnostic performance of pentraxin-3 for acute appendicitis, and the predictive performance for perforation in patients with acute appendicitis, compared with white blood cell count, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6 (IL-6). METHODS: This study was a prospective methodological study, in which we studied the accuracies of the serum levels of pentraxin-3, white blood cell count, interleukin-6 and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein in estimating acute appendicitis, and in estimating perforation in patients with acute appendicitis. We designed the control group with the patients diagnosed inguinal hernia and admitted for elective surgery. Receiver operating characteristics analysis was used to compare the diagnostic accuracies and predictive performances. RESULTS: Receiver operating characteristics analysis revealed that the Pentraxin-3 level >3.67 ng/mL showed the sensitivity of 95.5% and specificity of 100.0% for diagnosing acute appendicitis, with an area under the curve of 0.993 (95% CI 0.967–1.000). Also, the Pentraxin-3 level >9.56 ng/mL showed the sensitivity of 92.9%, and the specificity of 87.1% for the prediction of the perforation, with an area under the curve of 0.820 (95% CI 0.736–0.886). CONCLUSION: The diagnostic performance of Pentraxin-3 for acute appendicitis and the predictive performance for perforation were higher than white blood cell count, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein and interleukin-6.