Ghulam Mustafa Arain, K M Sohu, E Ahmad, W Hamer, Syed Asghar Naqi.
Role of Alvarado Score in Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis.
Pak J Surg Jan ;17(3):41-6.

Objective: To evaluate role of Alvarado score in diagnosis of acute appendicitis and compare the results with literature. Design: prospective study. Setting: Surgical Unit-II Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore. Period: Jan. 2000 to May 2000. Materials and methods: 900 consecutive patients including 44 males and 56 females with suspected acute appendicitis were included in this study. They were marked specific scores according to eight variables of Alvarado score. Patients with score 1-4 were group-I and discharged, with score 56 were group-II and kept under observation and patients with score 7-10 were group-III who underwent surgery.

Results: The results showed that in 56 patients who underwent appendicectomy, negative appendicectomy rate was 14.3% (13.6% males and 17.6% females). The perforation rate was 5.4%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and diagnostic accuracy were 97.2%, 84.6%, 85.5% and 85.7% respectively.

Conclusion: The Alvarado score is simple and ideal for supporting the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Particularly the junior staff may benefit from the use of structured data form by adopting a more systemic approach to patient assessment.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com