Development and validation of a clinical prediction rule for acute appendicitis in children in primary care

Guus Blok, Huib Burger, Johan van der Lei, Marjolein Berger, Gea Holtman*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
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Abstract

Background: 

Recognising acute appendicitis in children presenting with acute abdominal pain in primary care is challenging. General practitioners (GPs) may benefit from a clinical prediction rule. 

Objectives: 

To develop and validate a clinical prediction rule for acute appendicitis in children presenting with acute abdominal pain in primary care. Methods: In a historical cohort study data was retrieved from GP electronic health records included in the Integrated Primary Care Information database. We assigned children aged 4–18 years presenting with acute abdominal pain (≤ 7 days) to development (2010–2012) and validation (2013–2016) cohorts, using acute appendicitis within six weeks as the outcome. Multiple logistic regression was used to develop a prediction model based on predictors with > 50% data availability derived from existing rules for secondary care. We performed internal and external temporal validation and derived a point score to stratify risk of appendicitis into three groups, i.e. low-risk, medium-risk and high-risk. 

Results: 

The development and validation cohorts included 2,041 and 3,650 children, of whom 95 (4.6%) and 195 (5.3%) had acute appendicitis. The model included male sex, pain duration (<24, 24–48, > 48 h), nausea/vomiting, elevated temperature (≥ 37.3 °C), abnormal bowel sounds, right lower quadrant tenderness, and peritoneal irritation. Internal and temporal validation showed good discrimination (C-statistics: 0.93 and 0.90, respectively) and excellent calibration. In the three groups, the risks of acute appendicitis were 0.5%, 7.5%, and 41%, 

Conclusion:

Combined with further testing in the medium-risk group, the prediction rule could improve clinical decision making and outcomes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2233053
JournalEuropean Journal of General Practice
Volume29
Issue number1
Early online date14 Aug 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Dr Robert Sykes (www.doctored.org.uk) provided manuscript editing services for the final pre-submission drafts.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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