• Yavuz Albayrak, Ayse Albayrak, Muhammet Celik, Ibrahim Gelincik, Ismail Demiryılmaz, Rahsan Yildirim, and Bunyami Ozogul.
• Department of General Surgery and Burn Unit, Erzurum Region Education and Research Hospital, and Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Ataturk University, School of Medicine, Erzurum, Turkey. yavuzalbayrakdr@gmail.com
• Scand J Trauma Resus. 2011 Apr 20; 19: 27.

BackgroundThe aim of this prospective study was therefore to evaluate the diagnostic value of preoperative serum High Mobility Group Box Protein-1 (HMGB-1) levels in patients with Acute Appendicitis (AA) who show normal white blood cell count (WBC) counts.MethodOur study was carried out from October 2010 through November 2010 and included 20 healthy control group participants and 60 patients who presented at the emergency department of Erzurum Training and Research Hospital in Turkey with acute abdominal pain complaints, who were pathologically diagnosed with AA after laparotomy, and who agreed to participate in the study.ResultsOf the 60 patients who underwent appendectomies, 36 were male and 24 were female, and of the healthy group, 12 were male and 8 female. The age averages of the patients in Groups 1, 2 and 3 were, respectively, 31.3+15.4, 34.0+16.3 and 31.0+13.1 years. The WBC averages of Groups 1, 2 and 3 were, respectively, 7.41+2.02 (x10⁹/L), 15.71+2.85 (x10⁹/L) and 8.51+1.84 (x10⁹/L). The HMGB-1 levels for Groups 1 (healthy persons), 2 (AA patients with high WBC counts ) and 3 (AA patients with normal WBC counts) were, respectively, 21.71±11.36, 37.28+13.37 and 36.5±17.73 ng/ml. The average HMGB-1 level of the patients with AA was 36.92±15.43 ng/ml while the average HMGB-1 value of the healthy group was 21.71±11.36 ng/ml.ConclusionThe significantly higher levels of HMGB-1 in AA patients compared to healthy persons infer that HMGB-1 might be useful in the diagnosis of AA. Use of HMGB-1, especially in patients with normal WBC counts, will reduce the number of unnecessary explorations.

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