The Use of Thiol/Disulfide Homeostasis Parameters in the Diagnosis of Acute Appendicitis in Children

Objective The aim of this study was to determine the role of thiol/disulfide homeostasis (TDH) parameters which are new oxidative stress markers for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis (AA) in children with abdominal pain complaints. Methods A total of 40 patients with AA and 45 patients with abdominal pain were included in this study. Two groups were compared in terms of age, gender, white blood cell count, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, C-reactive protein (CRP), appendix diameter, and TDH parameters (native and total thiol levels, native thiol/total thiol ratio [antioxidant parameters] and disulfide level, disulfide/native thiol ratio, and disulfide/total thiol ratio [oxidant parameters]). Results Compared with the abdominal pain group, it was found that disulfide level, disulfide/native thiol, and disulfide/total thiol ratios (p < 0.001 for all) in patients with AA were significantly higher and their native thiol level (p = 0.02) and native thiol/total thiol ratio (p < 0.001) were significantly lower. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of total thiol level. There was no significant difference between the perforated and nonperforated groups in patients with AA in terms of TDH parameters. In addition, the CRP level was higher in the perforated group than the nonperforated group. Conclusion To our knowledge, the present study is a first in the literature in which TDH parameters were used in children with AA compared with the abdominal pain group. We thought that these parameters may be useful as new biomarkers supporting AA diagnosis in children.