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Published on: August 16, 2013

Is the Hematologic Inflammatory Index Useful for Detecting Acute Appendicitis in Pediatric Patients?

Taner Aşkın1, Tülin Öztaş2, Nilüfer Okur3

  • 1Department of Pediatrics, University of Health Sciences Diyarbakır Gazi Yaşargil Training and Research Hospital, Diyarbakır, Türkiye.

Turkish Archives of Pediatrics
|June 2, 2026
PubMed

Insights

The Hematologic Inflammatory Index (HII) showed higher values in pediatric appendicitis cases but lacked the accuracy for reliable standalone diagnosis or surgical guidance. Further research is needed for effective pediatric appendicitis management.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Surgery
  • Clinical Diagnostics
  • Inflammatory Markers

Background:

  • Appendicitis is the most common surgical emergency in children, necessitating early and accurate diagnosis.
  • Preventing complications and improving outcomes hinges on precise recognition of appendicitis.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To evaluate the diagnostic performance of the Hematologic Inflammatory Index (HII) in children with suspected appendicitis.
  • To assess HII's utility in guiding surgical decisions for pediatric appendicitis.

Main Methods:

  • A study involving 349 pediatric patients (5-18 years) with abdominal pain.
  • Comparison of laboratory markers, including HII, between confirmed acute appendicitis (AA) and non-acute appendicitis (non-AA) groups.
  • Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis to determine HII's diagnostic accuracy.

Main Results:

  • Patients with AA showed significantly elevated white blood cells, neutrophil count, C-reactive protein, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet/lymphocyte ratio (PLR), and HII.
  • HII achieved 78% sensitivity and 62% specificity for predicting AA at a cutoff of >0.86.
  • Lower lymphocyte and platelet counts were observed in the AA group.

Conclusions:

  • While HII values were higher in pediatric appendicitis, its diagnostic accuracy was insufficient for standalone use.
  • HII did not prove to be a reliable tool for guiding surgical decision-making in pediatric appendicitis cases.
Abstract

Keywords:
Diagnostic accuracyHematologic Inflammatory Indexpediatric appendicitis

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