Ultrasound signs of acute appendicitis in children - clinical application

Background. Acute appendicitis is a leading cause of the abdominal pain in children that need an urgent surgical treatment. Neither of individually clinical variables doesn’t have a real discriminational nor predictive strength to be used as the only diagnostic test. A goal of this study is to define ultrasound criteria of the acute appendicitis by appointing of ultrasound parameters for this pathological condition, determine the relation between ultrasound signs and pathohistological finding, determine the connection of several ultrasound signs with a degree of the inflammation of the acute appendicitis. Methods. In the prospective study with an ultrasound method we examine 50 patients with clinical signs of the acute abdomen. In these patients, the sonographic diagnosis is confirmed by the surgical finding, in fact with a pathohistological diagnosis. A basic, positive sonograph finding of the acute appendicitis was the identification of tubular, noncompresive, aperistaltic bowel which demonstrates a connection with coecum and blind terminal. In our work we analysed the lasting of the symptoms until the hospital intervention in patients stratified according to the pathohistological finding. We used ultrasound equipment- Toshiba Sonolayer with convex 3.75 MHz and linear 8 MHz probes. Results. From 8 ultrasound signs of the acute appendicitis, only an anterior-posterior (AP) diameter of appendices, FAT (width of periappendicular fat tissue) and a peristaltic absence are positive ultrasound signs of the acute appendicitis. Appendicitis phlegmonosa is the most common pathohistological finding in our study (44%). Perforate gangrenous appendicitis and gangrenous appendicitis are represented in more than half of patients (30% + 22%), which suggests a long period of persisting symptoms until a hospital treatment. A statistic analysis shows a great possibility for using values of AP diameter, width of periapendicular fat tissue, just like the values of mural thickness in the evaluation of the appendix inflammation level. Conclusions. Ultrasound is an absolute method of choice in the eventual doubt of the existing state of acute appendicitis, with 8 ultrasound signs that defined this pathological condition. AP appendix diameter, mural thickness and width of periapendicular fat tissue represents highly significant ultrasound criteria in the evaluation of the appendix inflammation level.