Using CT scans to check whether a patient is suffering from appendicitis has skyrocketed since the 1990s, especially among children.

A study out earlier this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine found the percentage of adults in the emergency room with appendicitis who got a CT scan rose from 6.3 percent in 1992 to 69 percent in 2006. For children, it shot up from 0 percent to 59.8 percent over the same period.

The researchers got the data by analyzing the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, a sample of almost 450,000 visits, from which they extracted information about 1,000 appendicitis patients.
Dr. Daniel Tsze, lead author of the study and a pediatrician at Columbia University Medical Center in New York, told Reuters CT scans were the most accurate tool for the diagnosis of appendicitis. However, there's not enough research to show whether they actually improve outcomes for appendicitis patients, he said.

Generally, patients with ambiguous symptoms can receive a CT scan to rule out other conditions. Tsze said ultrasound can also be used. Although less accurate, it does spare patients the roughly 5 mSv of radiation -- equal to 20 months background radiation -- from each scan. Limiting radiation exposure, is of, course, especially important for children, who are more radiosensitive.

In any case, the result's line up with those from another study, also published this month in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, which found the use of CT scans in the ER rose more than four-fold since the mid-1990s.

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