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ANATOMY
From the Department of Radiology, Quadra Medical Services Pvt. Ltd. Kolkata. India.
Request for Reprints: Ranjit Kumar Jain, Quadra Medical Services Pvt. Ltd. 41, Hazra Road, Kolkata 700019. India.
Received 21 May 2006; Accepted 10 August 2006
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inspissated barium, gallstones, worms (ascaris), foreign
bodies, or tumor.
Following obstruction of the appendiceal lumen, continued
mucus secretion and inflammatory exudation leads to
distension, mucosal edema and mucosal ulceration along
with translocation of bacteria to the submucosa. The
swelling of appendix stimulates the nerve endings of
visceral afferent fibers and the patient perceives visceral
periumbilical or epigastric pain.
With increasing intraluminal pressures, further distension
results in obstructed lymphatic and venous drainage and
allows vascular congestion of the appendix. The
inflammatory process soon involves the serosa. When
the inflamed serosa of the appendix comes in contact
with the parietal peritoneum, patients typically experience
the classic shift of pain to the right lower quadrant.
Intramural venous and arterial thromboses ensue, resulting
in gangrenous appendicitis.
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are less striking and tenderness may be more marked in
the flank. Pain in right lower quadrant with hyperextension
of the right hip (psoas sign) demonstrates nearby
inflammation when stretching the ileopsoas. Pain in the
right lower quadrant with passive internal rotation of the
flexed right hip (obturator sign) indicates that an inflamed
appendix is contact with the obturator internus.
Laboratory findings:
High level of C-reactive protein (>0.8 mg/dL) with
leukocytosis and neutrophilia are the most important
laboratory findings 6.
IMAGING
The clinical presentation of appendicitis is variable. While
the clinical diagnosis may be straightforward in patients
who present with classic signs and symptoms, atypical
presentations may result in diagnostic confusion and delay
in treatment 4. Clinical diagnosis is more confusing in
young and elderly patients. In addition, many other clinical
disorders present with symptoms similar to those of
appendicitis and the differential diagnosis 3includes the
following:
Acute Mesenteric Adenitis
Acute gastroenteritis
Meckel's Diverticulitis
Intussusception
Crohn's disease
Perforated peptic ulcer
Diverticulitis
Epiploic appendagitis
Urinary tract infection
Ureteric stone
Primary peritonitis
Henoch-Schonlein purpura
Yersiniosis
Diseases of the Male: Testicular torsion
Epididymitis
Seminal vesciculitis
Gynecologic disorders: Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
Ovarian cyst or torsion
Endometriosis
Ruptured ectopic pregnancy
Rectus sheath hematoma
Cholecystitis
Since accurate clinical diagnosis of appendicitis is difficult,
negative appendectomy rate7 can be as high as 20%.
Unnecessary surgery for suspected appendicitis exposes
patients to increased risks, morbidity, and expense 8.
Radiological examination can reduce the number of
misdiagnoses and negative laparotomies and help in
treatment of appendiceal abscesses and in postoperative
complications. Judicious use of graded compression US
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safe, and widely available. Because US involves no
ionizing radiation and excels in the depiction of acute
gynecologic conditions, it is recommended as the initial
imaging study in children, in young women, and during
pregnancy8. It has reported sensitivities of 75%-90%,
specificities of 86%-100%, accuracies of 87%-96%,
positive predictive values of 91%-94%, and negative
predictive values of 89%-97% for the diagnosis of acute
appendicitis (4). Use of preoperative ultrasonography is
also associated with overall lower negative appendectomy
rate (12).
Fig.3.Acute appendicitis in a 37-year-old man with right-lowerquadrant pain. (a) Long axis and (b) cross sectional US
images show inflamed appendix as a blind-ended,
noncompressible tubular structure filled with fluid and
surrounded by a hypoechoic mass representing phlegmon.
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IJRI, 16:4, November 2006
the cecum, careful attention should be paid to inflammatory
changes in the perienteric fat and the appendix itself.
Sagittal and oblique images should then be obtained until
the entire region of interest has been scanned. Detailed
images are obtained of the appendix, if it is seen. The
examination is generally begun with a curvilinear
transducer appropriate for the patient: a 3.5-MHz
transducer for large patients and a 5-MHz transducer for
thin patients. The linear transducer is used latter for more
detailed study. The retrocecal appendicitis is best studied
by the examination through the right flank (14).
The inflamed appendix is seen as a blind-ended,
aperistaltic, noncompressible, tubular structure that arises
from the base of the cecum having a diameter greater
than 6 mms.(Fig.3.) Presence of a fecalith (Fig.4) may
aid in arriving at a positive diagnosis.
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habitus and when there is an associated ileus, which
produces shadowing secondary to overlying gas-filled
loops of bowel. It may also be not possible on US to
differentiate between appendiceal phlegmon from an
abscess and CT may be helpful in this setting.
Computed Tomography
CT has become increasingly popular as an effective crosssectional imaging technique for diagnosing and staging
acute appendicitis. It is a quick and accurate examination
that is operator-independent, is relatively easy to perform
and provides images that are easy to interpret.(4, 17)
Helical CT has reported sensitivities of 90%-100%,
specificities of 91%-99%, accuracies of 94%-98%, positive
predictive values of 92%-98%, and negative predictive
values of 95%-100% for the diagnosis of acute
appendicitis.(4) Its use has decreased the rate of negative
appendectomies and has decreased the number of cases
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tuberculosis. Genitourinary disease then should be
excluded, including acute pyelonephritis, ureteral
obstruction, complications of ovarian cysts and masses,
and acute postpartum ovarian vein thrombosis. In adult
patients, one must also consider acute cholecystitis
(which may mimic acute appendicitis if the enlarged
gallbladder extends into the right-lower quadrant),
pancreatitis, sigmoid diverticulitis, bowel ischemia, and
bowel obstruction.
Fig. 9. Classic CT findings of acute appendicitis in a 48year-old woman who presented with right lower quadrant
pain and tenderness. (a) Transverse CT scan obtained with
oral contrast material and with 5-mm collimation reveals
an obstructing appendicolith within the distended appendix.
(b) Caudal helical CT image reveals periappendiceal
inflammation
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The size criterion to diagnose appendicitis is especially
important in the absence of periappendiceal inflammation.
Benjaminov et al(21) observed that an upper limit of 6.0
mm for normal appendiceal thickness can be used reliably
at CT only if the luminal content is visualized because in
the absence of periappendiceal inflammatory changes, it
is not possible to differentiate a noncollapsed appendix
filled with fluid of the same attenuation as the wall from a
thick inflamed appendix if the content is not visualized.
They suggested 10.0 mm as the upper limit of normal if
the luminal content is not visualized and extraappendiceal
inflammatory changes are not present. Patients with an
appendiceal thickness of 6.0-10.0 mm should therefore
undergo further examination with rectally or intravenously
administered contrast material or with US to visualize
the wall and thus prevent a false-positive diagnosis of
appendicitis.
In early or mild appendicitis the CT findings are very subtle.
The appendix may appear minimally distended associated
with a hazy, ill-defined increase in CT attenuation in the
fat immediately surrounding the appendix. However most
patients who undergo CT demonstrate greater degrees of
luminal distention and evidence of transmural
inflammation. Circumferential and symmetric wall
thickening is nearly always present and is best
demonstrated on images obtained with intravenous
contrast material enhancement. Periappendiceal
inflammation (Fig. 9b) is present in 98% of patients with
acute appendicitis.
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If the abnormal appendix is not seen, a specific diagnosis
of appendicitis can be made by identifying an
appendicolith within a periappendiceal abscess or
phlegmon
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made on the basis of history and physical examination.
Though decreasing, still a large number of appendices at
surgery are found to be normal, leading to a high rate of
negative appendectomies (8- 30%). This is because of
similar signs and symptoms of a wide range of acute
abdominal clinical disorders and nonspecific laboratory
and conventional radiographic findings. In recent years
however with the availability of various cross-sectional
imaging techniques viz. Ultrasonography, Spiral CT and
MRI, false positive diagnosis of acute appendicitis has
reduced therefore also reducing rate of negative
appendectomies. The overall accuracy of cross-sectional
imaging techniques in diagnosing acute appendicitis varies
from 87%-98%.
High resolution sonography is an most common imaging
technique used in diagnosing appendicitis as it is less
expensive, easily available and free from radiation,
however it is operator and subject dependent and requires
lot of experience. MRI can also be used in the setting of
pregnancy, otherwise it expensive, time consuming and
cumbersome. Spiral and recently multislice CT has
therefore emerged as the most effective tool for diagnosing
appendicitis and its complications because of its excellent
resolution. It provides exquisite detailed anatomical images
for review, and is also fast and operator independent.
References
1.