Ultrasound for Appendicitis for Appendicitis

The primary purpose of this study is to determine the accuracy of ultrasound (US) in diagnosing appendicitis in emergency department (ED) patients, as compared to the criterion standards of computed tomography, operative reports, or discharge diagnosis. The secondary purposes of the study include evaluation of the effect of ultrasound for appendicitis on the patient length of stay in the emergency department, the diagnostic utility of specific ultrasound findings in the diagnosis of appendicitis, the role of body mass index (BMI) in the utility of ultrasound for appendicitis and relation of ultrasound findings to the Alvarado score. The study will also examine the inter-rater agreement between point-of- care sonographers' interpretation and blinded reviewers' interpretation of the ultrasound images.