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Serum D-lactate: a useful diagnostic marker for acute appendicitis
Arife Polat Duzgun1, Güler Bugdayci, Bige Sayin
1Department of 3rd Surgery Ankara Numune Teaching and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
Serum D-lactate shows promise as a diagnostic marker for acute appendicitis, offering high accuracy and a low false negative rate compared to other tests. This could lead to simpler and more reliable appendicitis diagnosis.
Area of Science:
- Medical Diagnostics
- Biochemistry
- Surgical Infections
Background:
- Acute appendicitis is a common surgical emergency.
- Serum D-lactate, produced by gut bacteria, increases with appendiceal obstruction and ischemia.
- Current diagnostic methods have limitations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate serum D-lactate's sensitivity, specificity, NPV, and PPV for diagnosing acute appendicitis.
- To compare D-lactate with WBC, CRP, and ultrasound in appendicitis diagnosis.
Main Methods:
- Prospective study of 32 patients with suspected appendicitis.
- Assessed patient characteristics, ultrasound, WBC, CRP, and serum D-lactate levels.
- Correlated laboratory findings with intraoperative and histological results.
Main Results:
- Serum D-lactate > 0.25 mmol/L showed 90% accuracy for appendicitis.
- D-lactate had a lower false negative rate (25%) than CRP (67%).
- Ultrasound demonstrated high sensitivity (96%) but lower specificity (40%).
Conclusions:
- Serum D-lactate levels correlate positively with acute appendicitis.
- D-lactate exhibits a low false negative rate, suggesting it's a reliable marker.
- D-lactate may serve as a simple and effective diagnostic tool for appendicitis.
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