Evaluation of Serum procalcitonin level as a biomarker in patients suspicious to appendicitis referred to Academic Hospitals of Gorgan, 2020

Appendectomy for acute appendicitis is the most common emergency procedure in the world. The role of procalcitonin factor in the diagnosis of patients with suspected appendicitis has been different and somewhat confusing in recent studies. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the level of procalcitonin in patients with suspected appendicitis referred to Gorgan (5 Azar and Sayad Hospital) in 2020.

In this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study, 120 patients with suspected appendicitis underwent surgery and their serum procalcitonin levels were measured. Appendectomy pathology report was the basis for diagnosis. Serum levels of procalcitonin were measured by cheminolevominesance method. Data were entered into SPSS 19 software and analyzed.

In general, in this study, 120 patients with suspected appendicitis with a mean age of 30.96 ±12.81 were women. 45 patients (38.5%) were women and 75 patients (61.5%) were men. Fifteen cases (12.5%) were false appendectomy and the rest (87.5%) were true. The difference between the mean levels of procalcitonin in the false and true appendectomy pathology was statistically significant (p = 0.04). The mean level of procalcitonin in the true appendicitis group was 2.30±8.75 and in the fase appendicitis group was 0.07 ± 0.03(P=0.004).

The results of this study indicate that measurement of procalcitonin can be helpful in diagnosing acute appendicitis in difficult cases.