CA-125 as a marker of peritoneal inflammation in diagnosis of acute appendicitis

Aim: Acute appendicitis is the most common acute condition of the abdomen requiring surgery. To date, several inflammatory markers have been used for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic utility of CA-125 (cancer antigen 125) in acute appendicitis. Methods: We prospectively enrolled 52 consecutive male patients and 20 healthy control subjects. Results: Overall, 48/52 patients had acute appendicitis. Of these, 17 had complicated appendicitis (35%). The CA-125 concentration was significantly greater in patients with acute appendicitis than in healthy subjects (26.3 vs. 9.6 U/mL, P .017). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis suggested that the optimal cutoff CA-125 concentration for acute appendicitis diagnosis was 11.78 U/mL. The positive predictive value and the negative predictive values were 91.0% (95% confidence interval 78.14%–97.52%) and 66.6% (95% confidence interval 44.62%–84.33%), respectively. Conclusions: We conclude that measurement of CA-125 concentration may support the clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis.