A PROSPECTIVE COMPARATIVE STUDY OF ALVARADO SCORE AND ULTRASOUND IMAGING IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF ACUTE APPENDICITIS

Background: Acute appendicitis is the acute inammation of appendix which is the most common cause of acute surgical emergencies. Appendicitis can mimic other pathologies.Aims and Objective:To correlate Alvarado score with USG imaging in diagnosis of Acute appendicitis and study the usefulness of incorporating USG imaging in patients with low/equivocal Alvarado Score in improving the diagnostic accuracy in acute appendicitis. Material and methods: This was prospective comparative study carried out in 100 patients over the period of 01 year. Patients with clinical features of acute appendicitis and tting in inclusion and exclusion criteria were selected. Detailed history was noted and clinical examination was done. Necessary investigations were done, modied Alvarado score was calculated and all were subjected to ultrasonography of abdomen and pelvis. Intra operative ndings were noted about nature of appendix and histopathology ndings were noted. Results: Out of all the patients who underwent appendicectomies, 63 (63%) were histologically positive for acute appendicitis, 16 (16%) were positive for chronic appendicitis and 21 (21 %) were histologically negative. Ultra-sonography had sensitivity of 92.41%, specicity of 4.76%, positive predictive value of 78.50%, negative predictive value of 14.29%. Diagnostic accuracy of 74%.USG report of 88 (88%) patients showed Acute Appendicitis, 5 (5%) showed appendicular perforation and the USG report of 7 (7%) patients werenormal. Conclusion: On correlation of Alvarado score and USG imaging with gold standard histopathological examination, we observed that Modied Alvarado Score is not superior to USG and both investigations together improve the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.