Abdul Basit Qureshi, Ahmad Raza, Sajid Mukhtar.
Role of c-reactive protein in diagnosis of acute appendicitis.
Esculapio J Services Inst Med Sci Jan ;9(4):175-8.

Objective: The objective of this study is to determine the role of C-reactive protein in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Material and Methods: Seventy patients with suspicion of acute appendicitis were collected for this study. The patients were collected on the basis of history, clinical examination and laboratory investigations. Operation was done in all patients and appendix was sent for histopathology. Histopathology was considered as gold standard. Results: The mean age of patients was 22.40+7.95 years. The mean C-reactive protein of the patients was 21.64+19.63ug/ml. There were 14.3% patients of C- reactive protein range of less than 6ug/ml and 85.7% patients of C-reactive protein range of more than 6ug/ml. In the histopathology findings, there were 94.3% patients of acutely inflamed appendix and 5.7% patients of normal appendix. The sensitivity was found to be 86%, specificity 91% and positive predictive value 86%, negative predictive value 87% and accuracy 89%. Conclusion: A normal pre-operative serum CRP measurement in patients with suspected acute appendicitis is most likely associated with a normal appendix. Deferring surgery in the patients would probably reduce the rate of unnecessary appendicectomies.

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