title: Clinical significance of C-reactive protein levels in the determination of pathological type of acute appendicitis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the significance of C-reactive protein (CRP) in the discrimination of acute appendicitis pathology and its guiding role in the timing of surgery.
  
  
  METHODS
  307 patients in our hospital from July 2012 to December 2013 were selected, who received appendectomy and simultaneous detections of WBC, neutrophil percentage and CRP; and Logistic regression analysis and Roc analysis of these indicators were conducted; Roc curve was drawn.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Logistic regression analysis showed that the proportion of neutrophils and CRP were the risk factors to determine gangrenous appendicitis, but the box chart and Roc curves showed that C-reactive protein was superior to neutrophil classification in determining gangrenous appendicitis (areas under the curve were 0.882 and 0.667 respectively), and the best diagnostic cutoff value was 44.42 mg/L (sensitivity 73.1%, specificity 89.5%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  C-reactive protein levels can help distinguish pathological types of acute appendicitis, which can be used as a reference index for surgery determination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Second People's Hospital of Shandong Liaocheng Linqing 252600, China.
authors.forename: Feng-Qin
authors.initials: FQ
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency, The Second People's Hospital of Shandong Liaocheng Linqing 252600, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
keywords: CRP; WBC count; acute appendicitis; neutrophil percentage; pathological type