The effectiveness of using spot urinary 5-HIAA level in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis
Bertan Küçük, Oktay Yener, Alp Özçelik, Gürhan Güngör, Canan Erengül, Yahya Çelik, Mustafa Demir
Göztepe Eğitim Araştırma Hastanesi, 2. Cerrahi Kliniği, İstanbul, Türkiye
Abstract
Purpose: The aim of the study is to investigate the significance of spot urine 5-hydroxy indolacetic acid levels in patients admitted with the suspicion of acute appendicitis.
Patients and Methods: Seventy-two patients with a mean age 32.52±12.9 years who were admitted to our emergency surgery clinic between May 2009 and July 2009 with the complaints of abdominal pain were evaluated prospectively. The study was approved by the local ethics committee of our institution. The results were analyzed with NCSS 2007&PASS 2008 statistical software program.
Results: After the clinical evaluation, appendicitis was detected in 45 patients and abdominal pain was found to be due to causes other then appendicitis in 26 patients. Spot urine samples were collected in all patients at the admission. The differences in the spot urine 5-hydroxy indolacetic acid levels between the patients with acute appendicitis and other groups were not statistically significant (p>0.05). Spot urine 5-hydroxy indolacetic acid level test was found to be 69.3% sensitive, 40% specific, and had a positive predictive value of 69.23% and diagnostic specificity of 50.7%.
Conclusion: Spot urine 5-hydroxy indolacetic acid levels in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis appear to have a limited diagnostic power as a single parameter in adults.
Keywords: Acute appendicitis, 5-HIAA level