Appendicitis will be determined by urine analysis
American scientists have developed a potential way to detect appendicitis by urinalysis, which may become the simplest and most accurate means of rapid diagnosis of this common disease.
The inflammation of the appendix of the caecum, which is not recognized in time, poses a threat to life, at the same time, existing diagnostic methods are far from perfect. Recently obtained data indicate that approximately 3-30 percent of children with suspected this disease have a healthy appendix removed, and up to 45 percent undergo surgery after complications develop.
To overcome this situation, a research team from Boston Children's Hospital in Massachusetts began searching for biochemical markers of appendicitis in the urine of patients. After examining urine samples of six sick and six healthy children by mass spectrometry, the scientists found 57 compounds characterizing the immune response to acute inflammation.
Further examination of 67 samples narrowed the search to seven potential markers. The most accurate of them turned out to be leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein (leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein, LRG). According to researchers, the concentration of this protein in the urine increases in proportion to the severity of appendicitis.
Scientists admit that expensive mass spectrometry cannot be widely used in all hospitals, but they see no obstacles to the development of a biochemical test system for determining the level of LRG in urine.
However, before introducing the analysis into clinical practice, it is necessary to prove its informative value in adult patients, as well as to find out how specific it is for appendicitis.
Copper news based on EurekAlert materials! – A urine test for appendicitis?Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru/