The efficacy of hemogram parameters in the differential diagnosis of renal colic and acute appendicitis in the emergency department.

BACKGROUND

To investigate the efficacy of WBC, PLR and NLR for use in the differential diagnosis of acute appendicitis and renal colic in the emergency department.

METHODS

This study was conducted after consent was received from the Cukurova University Medicine Faculty Noninvasive Clinical Research Ethics Committee. In this study, 440 patients for whom file data could be accessed in the hospital automation and archive system who were admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain were included.

RESULTS

Of the 440 patients included in this study, 59.5% were male and 40.5% were female. The average age of the patients was 37.74±13.39 years. According to the pathological diagnosis, 207 patients were diagnosed with acute appendicitis. When the efficacy of differential diagnosis using hematological parameters was examined with ROC analysis, the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) value had the strongest predictive ability (AUC, 0.716, SS=0.024, 95% GA 0.668-0.764). After NLR, the platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR) value was the second-best concerning predictive ability for differential diagnosis (AUC, 0.608 SS=0.027, 95%, GA 0.555-0.661).

CONCLUSION

Patients with acute appendicitis and renal colic often present to the emergency department with abdominal pain. While patients with acute appendicitis are usually treated with surgical methods, medical treatment is used for renal colic in the acute period. The differential diagnosis of these two patient groups is important. We believe that the PLR and NLR values can be used when an exact differential diagnosis cannot be made.