title: Family history of acute appendicitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the association of acute appendicitis with age, sex, Alvarado score (AS) and family history.
  
  
  METHODS
  Medical records of 2670 patients, who were admitted to our hospital's emergency department between January 2005 and June 2007, were reviewed. These patients were referred as acute abdominal pain by general practitioners. The data of patients were devided into sub-groups according to their age, sex, operative status, AS status and having a pathologically confirmed postoperative diagnose of acute appendicitis or not. Logistic regression analysis was performed to find out relationships among the sub-groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Male gender (1.37), age < 50 (2.4), positive family history (3.16), AS 5-6 (13) and AS 7 (31) increased the risk of acute appendicitis. The sensitivity and specificity of AS was 91.5% and 60.5% respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of family history was 68.9% and 75.4% respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Family history is an important parameter while predicting acute appendicitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, Ankara Ataturk Teaching and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emre
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ergul
authors.forename: Ali Erkan
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Ucar
authors.forename: Yigit Mehmet
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Ozgun
authors.forename: Birol
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Korukluoglu
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kusdemir
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001064:Appendicitis / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index