Pediatric perforated appendicitis diagnosis based on the C-reactive protein/prealbumin ratio

Abstract

Abstract Pediatric perforated appendicitis, prone to multiple complications, necessitates identifying potential serum biomarkers for early diagnosis and intervention. A cross-sectional study was conducted on patients under 16 with acute appendicitis, admitted to Hainan Women and Children’s Medical Center from January 2019 to July 2023. The patients were categorized into perforated and non-perforated groups. Among the 313 included patients, 106 (33.87%, 95% CI 28.59–39.14%) developed perforation. The C-reactive protein to prealbumin ratio (CPA) showed a significant difference between the perforated and non-perforated groups [6.63 (2.9–13.02) vs. 0.7 (0.11–2.18), p 3 predicting perforation was 76.2%, with a specificity of 81.6%, and an AUC of 0.816 (95% CI 0.747–0.886, p 2.2 predicting perforation was 85%, with a specificity of 85.7%, and an AUC of 0.919 (95% CI 0.859–0.979, p 3 and CPA > 2.2 can predict perforated appendicitis in patients aged 4–9 and 9–16, respectively.

Keywords

• Perforated appendicitis
• Predictor
• Pediatric
• C-reactive protein
• Prealbumin
• Odds ratio