A recent study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine reports Pentraxin-3 as a strong biomarker in children for diagnosing appendicitis.

Oztan MO, et al. - Researchers investigated pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) for its diagnostic value in appendicitis in pediatric patients and compared it with the other serum parameters. This study included 88 patients (aged <18 years) [Group 1 (n = 28) healthy volunteers, Group 2 (n = 28) patients with non-specific abdominal pain, Group 3 (n = 34) patients underwent appendectomy]. Group 2 and 3 had higher median serum levels of white blood cell (WBC) than Group 1. ANS, neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), C-reactive protein (CRP) and PTX-3 were higher in Group 2 than Group 1 and were higher in Group 3 than the other groups. They noted the highest sensitivity in NLR >3.5 and PTX-3 > 5.6 ng/mL.

Outcomes thus suggest a great utility of PTX-3 with high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of appendicitis compared to WBC, ANS, NLR and CRP as a first in the literature.