The Results of Abdominopelvic Computed Tomography Interpreted via Remote Access for the Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis

INTRODUCTION Abdominal computed tomography (CT) is one of the imaging modalities for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis (AA). Today, CT scans can be interpreted via remote access called tele-radiology, besides conventional methods. The objective of this study was to evaluate the CT interpreted via tele-radiology for diagnosing AA. METHODS In this retrospective study, a total of 679 patients, who were interpreted via tele-radiology of CT due to suspicion of AA, were evaluated. Age, gender, CT findings, pathology results and intra-operative diagnosis of those with normal CT results were analysed. A sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive values (PPV) and negative predictive values (NPV) of CT in the diagnosis of AA were calculated. RESULTS 520 patients who were operated with pre-diagnosed AA were found. Of those, 441 patients (84.8%) were diagnosed with AA according to CT reports, out of which 368 (83.4%) were positive (true-positive) and 73 (16.6%) were negative (false-positive) in terms of pathology results. In the remaining operated 79 patients with normal CT results, 58 (73.4%) were positive for AA and 21 (26.6%) (negative laparotomy) were negative for AA in terms of pathological examination. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, PPV and NPV of CT in the diagnosis of AA were determined as 81.2%, 67.7%, 76.7%, 83.4% and 64.2%, respectively. CONCLUSION The sensitivity and PPV rates were found similar in both conventional and tele-radiological methods. However, specificity, accuracy and NPV rates were determined lower than in literature. Additionally, the negative laparotomy rate was higher than the conventional method.