Pediatric Appendicitis Score for Identifying Acute Appendicitis in Children Presenting With Acute Abdominal Pain to the Emergency Department.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS) in predicting appendicitis in children presenting with acute abdominal pain to the Emergency Department (ED) of a private hospital in Pakistan. METHODS: This validation study was through retrospective chart review of children between 4-18 years of age with clinical suspicion of acute appendicitis, presenting to the pediatric ED. Diagnostic accuracy was determined using sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, and area under the curve (AUC). RESULTS: 104 children (76% boys) with mean (SD) age of 10.9 (3.5) years met the eligibility criteria. 91% (n=95) patients had moderate to high PAS (score ³4), and 95% (n=99) had biopsy-proven appendicitis. The likelihood ratio calculated for low, equivocal and high-risk PAS was 0.10, 2.17 and 2.53, respectively. An equivocal PAS (score 4-6) showed a sensitivity of 96.8%, specificity of 80%, positive predictive value of 98.9% and AUC of 0.84 for predicting acute appendicitis. CONCLUSION: PAS showed good diagnostic accuracy in predicting acute appendicitis in children presenting to the ED.