ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in the detection of acute appendicitis by taking CT abdomen as gold standard at tertiary care Hospital.

Material and Method:

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study and was done at radiology department of Liaquat University of Medical and health Sciences (LUMHS), from July 2020 to December 2020. Clinically suspected patients of the acute appendicitis with all age groups and either of gender were subjected. After taking informed consent all the study participants underwent fresh abdominal ultrasound and CT abdomen. All the information was entered in the self-made study proforma. SPSS version 20 was used for the data analysis

Results: A total of 98 cases of suspected for acute appendicitis were assessed, their mean age was 35.86+6.61 years. Males and females were almost in equal frequency as 51% and 49% respectively. Out of all 71.1% of the cases were diagnosed as appendicitis as per trans-abdominal ultrasound and among 77.6% of the cases were diagnosed as acute appendicitis cases according CT abdominal findings. Overall diagnostic accuracy of ultrasound in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis was 82%, sensitivity 84%, specificity 57% followed by positive predictive value (PPV) 92% and negative predictive value 57%.

Conclusion: Trans-abdominal ultrasonography was found to be the effective, non-invasive, easily available and radiation safe diagnostic tool for acute appendicitis. However experience and expertise of the radiologist are very important.

Keywords: Appendix, Ultrasound, accuracy, sensitivity, specificity