The usefulness of hemogram parameters in the differential diagnosis of patients with abdominal pain who are being treated for acute appendicitis

Abstract

Acute appendicitis (AA) is among the most common immediate surgical operations in children for all age groups. To determine whether complete blood count (CBC) criteria may be used to help physicians differentiate between AA and other causes of abdominal pain in patients who visit the emergency room. The data of 116 patients with abdominal pain who were brought into the emergency room and hospitalized between January 20 and December 21 were analyzed retrospectively. The CBC parameters of 53 patients diagnosed with AA (Group 1) and 63 patients who received non-AA medical treatment (Group 2) were compared. In addition, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses were performed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of these parameters at the optimum cutoff values.The M/F ratio of the patients was 36/17 in Group 1 and 40/23 in Group 2. White blood cell (WBC), neutrophil and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) values were noticeably higher in AA patients than in patients receiving medical treatment (p<001). According to the 9.84 cutoff value of WBC, the sensitivity value was 84.1%, and the specificity was 73.6, for neutrophils, the sensitivity was 87.3% and the specificity was 62.3% (4.81 cutoffs), while 2.19 NLR showed a sensitivity of 74.6% and specificity of 56.6%, with a cutoff value of 2.19.We believe that the values of CBC parameters such as WBC, neutrophil and NLR should still be considered when treating various patient groups and making a differential diagnosis.