A new and early marker in the diagnosis of acute complicated appendicitis: immature granulocytes

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the immature granulocyte (IG) count (IGC) and percentage (IG%) in both diagnosing acute appendicitis (AA) and discriminating between simple appendicitis (SA) and complicated appendicitis (CA). METHODS: This study was carried out using the data of 438 adult patients who underwent an appendectomy. Demographic details, the preoperative white blood cell (WBC) count, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), IGC and IG%, operation findings, and pathology results were assessed retrospectively. The patients were grouped as AA and normal appendix (NA) according to the pathology reports, and the AA cases were subdivided into SA and CA groups according to the intraoperative findings. RESULTS: WBC, NLR, IGC, and IG% were significant parameters in the diagnosis of AA. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC: 0.795), sensitivity (55.5%) and specificity (96.1%) values of IGC were higher than the other parameters. All of the parameters were also significant for a CA diagnosis; however, the value of IG% in a CA diagnosis was stronger than the other parameters (IG% AUROC: 0.979, sensitivity: 94.4%, specificity: 97.9%). CONCLUSION: The IG value is a fast, easily available, and reliable parameter in both diagnosing AA and discriminating between SA and CA.