Graded compressive sonography may be useful as an adjuvant in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. To determine the role of sonography in the differential diagnosis of acute appendicitis, preappendectomy sonographic data of 164 consecutive cases in Fatemeh-Zahra Teaching Hospital were evaluated. Of 113 (68.9%) patients who had acute appendicitis in histopathology, 64 (56.6%) cases had preoperative sonographic diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Of 51 patients who had normal appendices, 40 (78.4%) cases had normal appendices in sonographic evaluations. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of sonography for acute appendicitis were 56.7%, 78.4% and 0.63, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values were 85.3% and 44.49% respectively. As a result, sonographic evaluation is an additional diagnostic tool in acute appendicitis.

Keywords: appendicitis, sonography, pathology, appendectomy

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