Effectiveness of laboratory tests in predicting pathologies on computed tomography in geriatric patients with abdominal pain

Abstract

Purpose: Our study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of laboratory tests in predicting clinically significant pathologies (CSPs) on abdominal computed tomography (CT) in geriatric patients with abdominal pain. Materials and Methods: Our study is a retrospective case-control study. All patients who were admitted to the emergency department due to abdominal pain had an abdominal CT scan and were 65 years of age or older were included in the study. Laboratory test results were obtained from blood tests taken at the time of admission. According to CT results, patients were grouped into two groups: "CSPs (+)" or "CSPs (-)". The relationship between laboratory results and CSPs was analyzed statistically. Results: Five hundred eighteen patients were included in the study. CSPs (+) were detected on CT in 72.4% of the patients. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), C-reactive protein (CRP), white blood cells (WBC), platelet, neutrophil, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) values were statistically significantly higher in CSPs (+) patients. The optimal cut-off values of the tests were WBC>10.75 (x10˄3/µL), CRP >150.5 (mg/L), NLR>4.4, ALP >92 (U/L). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of all of these tests was below 0.6 and was not sufficiently effective for diagnostic use. Conclusion: Our study showed that using laboratory parameters alone would not be sufficient to predict CSPs on CT in geriatric patients with abdominal pain.