S. Eriksson et al., SENSITIVITY OF INTERLEUKIN-6 AND C-REACTIVE PROTEIN CONCENTRATIONS INTHE DIAGNOSIS OF ACUTE APPENDICITIS, The European journal of surgery, 161(1), 1995, pp. 41-45
Objective: To evaluate the interleukin-6 (IL-6) concentration in the d
iagnosis of acute appendicitis, either as a single or four-hourly test
. Design: Open study Setting: Teaching hospital, Sweden Subjects: 165
consecutive patients admitted with suspected acute appendicitis.Main o
utcome measures: Correlation of concentrations of IL-6 and C-reactive
protein with white cell count, duration of symptoms, and histological
appearance of the appendix. Results: Of 165 patients, 101 patients had
their appendices removed, and of these 86 had histologically confirme
d appendicitis. An IL-6 concentration of less than 15 ng/l was accepte
d as the reference. On admission IL-6 concentrations above 15 ng/l gav
e a sensitivity of 66% and a specificity of 31% for acute appendicitis
. Repeated tests were of no value. When the patients operated on were
divided in groups depending on the duration of symptoms, C-reactive pr
otein was the most valuable test after 24 hours' abdominal pain. Total
white cell count has the most sensitive in patients with abdominal pa
in of less than 24 hours' duration. Conclusions: Measurement of IL-6 c
oncentrations does not increase the accuracy of the diagnosis of acute
appendicitis. There was no significant correlation between IL-6 and C
-reactive protein concentrations.