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[Utility of Pediatric Appendicitis Score and abdominal ultrasound in the diagnostic process of acute appendicitis].

INTRODUCTION
Pain in the right iliac fossa is a frequent reason for consultation and the diagnosis of appendicitis remains a challenge. The Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS) stratifies the risk of suffering appendicitis, and abdominal ultrasound provides information without irradiation. This study aims to correlate the score and the ultrasound with the screening of appendicitis and evaluate its efficiency.


PATIENTS AND METHODS
Prospective study of cases and controls, analytical, observational and longitudinal. Patients <15 years of age, treated for suspected appendicitis in the emergency department of a II level center, were evaluated for 6 months. The data were analyzed univariate and bivariate, using nonparametric and parametric tests according to the distribution.


RESULTS
68 patients with pain in the right iliac fossa were included: 26 appendicitis (cases) (38.2%) and 42 (61.7%) other diagnoses (controls). The PAS in appendicitis was 7.5±1.8 and in other diagnoses 5.4±1.8 (p <0.01). At 70.5% with PAS ≥4 an ultrasound was performed (diagnosis of appendicitis 58.1%, discarded 25.6% and inconclusive 16.3%). Sensitivity and specificity were calculated by PAS groups only, and including ultrasound. The best result was for PAS ≥4 with ultrasound with a sensitivity of 96.2%, specificity 94.1%, PPV 96.1% and NPV 94.1%.


CONCLUSIONS
PAS is a good screening tool for the diagnosis of appendicitis. Ultrasound presents a high efficiency for the diagnosis of appendicitis. This efficiency improves when performed in the group of patients with PAS ≥4.