The evaluation of technetium 99m-citrate scintigraphy in children with suspected appendicitis

The authors evaluated the use of technetium (Tc) 99m-citrate scan in 30 children whose diagnoses of appendicitis were unclear.

There were 17 boys and 13 girls (mean age 10.6 years). Nineteen of 30 patients had appendicitis confirmed at laparotomy and through histological examination, and 11 patients had other causes of acute abdominal pain.

Children included in this study were similar with respect to age, duration of symptoms, temperature, white blood cell count, and the incidence of right lower quadrant tenderness. Sixteen children had positive scan for acute appendicitis, but 1 of them had false-positive. Fourteen children had negative scan, but 4 of them had false-negative. The calculated values were 78.9% (15 of 19), 90.9% (10 of 11), 83.3% (25 of 30), 93.7% (15 of 16), and 71.4% (10 of 14) for sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive prediction, and negative prediction, respectively, in this study.

The authors suggest the use of 99mTc-citrate scan in children when the diagnosis of appendicitis using other methods is unclear.