Less Radiation to Find Appendicitis

Doctors may be able to diagnose appendicitis with a scan that uses a much lower dose of radiation, a new study finds. The study included 891 people. All of them were between ages 15 and 44. All had suspected appendicitis. Researchers randomly assigned half of them to receive a low-dose computed tomography (CT) scan of the abdomen. The others had a standard-dose CT scan. In all, 172 people in the first group were diagnosed with appendicitis. In the standard-dose group, the number was 186. During surgery, doctors discovered that just over 3% of each group did not have appendicitis. So the low-dose scan was just as accurate as the standard scan, researchers said. The standard scan used about 8 millisieverts of radiation. The low-dose scan used 2 millisieverts, or one-quarter as much. The New England Journal of Medicine published the study. HealthDay News wrote about it April 25.