Usefulness of history-taking, physical examination and diagnostic scoring in acute renal colic

Objective: The accuracy of the clinical diagnosis of acute renal colic was studied in connection with the survey of acute abdominal pain by the Resear ch Committee of the World Organization of Gastroenterology. The diagnostic efficiency of various clinical symptoms, signs and tests have not previousl y been analyzed in the diagnosis of acute renal colic, and therefore the st udy is of potential importance. Methods: 1,333 patients presenting with acu te abdominal pain were included in the study. The clinical findings in each patient were recorded in detail, using a predefined structured data collec tion sheet, and the collected data were compared with the final diagnoses o f the patients. Twenty-three clinical history variables, 14 clinical signs and 3 tests were evaluated in a single variable and multivariate analysis. Results: In multivariate logistic regression analysis, the most significant predictors of acute renal colic were urine, tenderness, renal tenderness, duration of pain and appetite. The sensitivity in detecting acute renal col ic was 0.84, with a specificity of 0.99 and an efficiency of 0.98. To sum u p the contributions of most significant diagnostic factors, a diagnostic sc ore (DS) was built. This score incorporated independent variables, e.g. uri ne, tenderness, renal tenderness, duration of pain, appetite and sex. The D S reached a sensitivity of 0.89 in detecting acute renal colic, with a spec ificity of 0.99 and an efficiency of 0.99. Conclusions: The results clearly show that acute abdominal pain with normal appetite, short duration of pai n (less than or equal to 12 h), loin or renal tenderness and hematuria (ery throcytes >10) are indicative of acute renal colic, and therefore, in this particular clinical question, careful history-taking and physical examinati on are of utmost importance. In our study, the DS system performed well con sidering the simple nature of its structure. However, to minimize the risk to the patient, we recommend that the DS is used only as an aid in decision -making when there is uncertainty as to the diagnosis of acute renal colic and the need for immediate treatment. In addition, the possibility of obstr uctive pyelonephritis in combination with renal colic should be considered clinically.