ArticleEmergency (Tehran, Iran)2018
Serum Procalcitonin and Lactoferrin in Detection of Acute Appendicitis; a Diagnostic Accuracy Study.
Article in Emergency (Tehran, Iran), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Delta neutrophil index, CRP/albumin ratio, procalcitonin, immature granulocytes, and HALP score in acute appendicitis: Best performing biomarker?Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionFinding an accurate diagnostic test can reduce the rate of unnecessary abdominal surgery in cases of suspected acute appendicitis (AA). This study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of serum lactoferrin (LF) and procalcitonin (PCT) in detection of patients with acute appendicitis.
methodsIn this diagnostic accuracy study, screening performance characteristics of PCT and LF were calculated in patients suspected with acute appendicitis and healthy volunteers as control group.
results131 cases participated (61 as case and 70 as control). The mean serum level of LF (0.9±0.14 vs 0.2±0.13 µg/ml; p 0.0001) and PCT (0.15±0.21 vs 0.11±0.02 ng/dl; p = 0.02) were significantly higher in patients suspected with AA. The AUC of PCT and LF were 0.46 (95% CI: 0.31-0.61) and 0.61 (95%CI: 0.47 - 0.76), respectively. At a 0.90 µg/ml cut-off value, LF had 77% (95 % CI: 63 - 91) sensitivity and 43% (95 % CI: 31 - 55) specificity. Also, at a 0.11 ng/dl cut-off value, PCT had 41% (95 % CI: 26 - 56) sensitivity and 69% (95 % CI: 53 - 85) specificity.
conclusionBased on the main finding of present study, the overall accuracy of serum PCT and LF in detection of patients with acute appendicitis are in poor to failed range and it seems that they could not be considered as good screening tools for this purpose.
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