Evaluation of radiological imaging findings in patients with suspected acute appendicitis

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: In this study, we evaluated retrospectively 200 patients with acut appendicitis, regardless of age and gender differences in our hospital radiology department. Pregnant patients were examined using Ultrasonography (US) as the primary diagnostic method and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as the secondary diagnostic method. The diagnostic success of US and MRI examinations was evaluated based on these results. In other patients who underwent US or CT examinations, parameters such as diameter, wall thickness, changes in the surrounding adipose tissue due to inflammation, and the presence of appendicolith were investigated for sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values. In the treatment part, it was researched whether antibiotic therapy, as determined appropriate by clinicians based on the US examination and diagnosed as acute appendicitis in patients aged 0-18, could be used as an alternative to surgery. MATERIALS AND METHOD: In a retrospective study, data of patients who presented to the Emergency Department of Sakarya University Training and Research Hospital between January 2018 and December 2021 diagnosed with acute appendicitis through radiological imaging, were extracted from the hospital automation system and recorded in an Excel program for statistical analysis. A significance level of p<0.05 was accepted for statistical significance. SPSS v20.0 (IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 20.0; Armonk, NY, USA) software package was used for the analyses. RESULTS: We have reached the conclusion that US has a relatively low success rate compared to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in diagnosing acute appendicitis in pregnant patients with a presumptive diagnosis. MRI demonstrated a high success rate and can be considered as a primary diagnostic method. The limited number of pregnant patients (n=13) is among the constraints of this study. Our research serves as a preliminary study on this subject, and by conducting larger-scale studies with more participants, the reliability of the results can be increased CONCLUSION: In our study, MRI showed high accuracy in diagnosing acut apendicitis in pregnant patients. In the treatment protocol, it was emphasized that antibiotic therapy could be an alternative treatment to surgery in case of uncomplicated appendicitis Keywords: Acut appendicitis, antibiotic therapy, appendectomy, compression