Appendicitis Inflammatory Response score

The Appendicitis Inflammatory Response 'score' is a diagnostic scoring system used to assist with the identification of appendicitis in children and adults.

History

The scoring system was developed in 2008. The AIR score was developed to overcome some of the drawbacks of the Alvarado score, another diagnostic scoring system for identifying appendicitis. The AIR score is one of the two scores recommended by the 2020 World Society of Emergency Surgery clinical practice guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of acute appendicitis.

Scoring and interpretation

The AIR score is calculated by tallying "points" ascribed to meeting its criteria, which are:

Validation

A 2017 review found that the AIR score has a sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 63% if a score of 5 is used as a cut off for indicating a positive test, whereas the sensitivity is 20% and the specificity is 97% if a score of 8 is used.

Limitations

While the AIR score has better predictive power than certain other diagnostic tools for appendicitis, it has only been validated in a small number of studies as of 2017.