Authors’ contributions HHB was involved in the study conception and design, data collection, analysis, revision, editing and inhibitor manufacture manuscript writing. MH participated to the study conception and design, writing-up and finalization of the manuscript. HK was involved in the conception and design of study and took an active part in the data analysis and results interpretation. DKZ contributed to the data collection and helped to analyze and interpret the data and to write the manuscript. EJ participated to the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical study design, analysis and results
interpretation and writing-up of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical manuscript. Pre-publication history The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-227X/10/20/prepub Acknowledgements This study was sponsored by the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The authors wish to thank all participants for their support and involvement in this study. We also, thank Dr Ahmadreza Djalali for his useful comments.
Acute appendicitis is one of the most common reasons for acute abdomen [1]. Diagnosis based
on clinical evaluation only is difficult and results in high negative appendectomy rates and missed Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical diagnoses [2,3]. Negative appendectomies increase mortality, prolong hospital stay, and increase the risk of infectious complications [4]. Appendicitis is missed in approximately 12% of patients, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical increasing the risk of novel perforated appendicitis, peritonitis, abscesses and leading Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to a two to tenfold increased
mortality rate [5-7]. The use of ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) to support clinical diagnosis is widespread [8]. US has considerable accuracy limitations, as it generates too many false negative results. Although CT is more accurate, it fails in 12% of patients and results in considerable ionizing radiation exposure in often young individuals. This ionizing radiation exposure AV-951 is associated with the risk of cancer induction and cancer related death [9]. Iodinated contrast medium administration may also induce nephropathy or aggravate existing nephropathy. MRI is a potential replacement for CT, without associated ionizing radiation and contrast medium administration. If proven to be sufficiently accurate, MRI could be introduced in the diagnostic pathway of patients with suspected appendicitis, increasing diagnostic accuracy and improving clinical outcome, without the risk of radiation induced cancer or iodinated contrast medium-related drawbacks.