Utility of Pentraxin-3 as a biomarker for diagnosis of acute appendicitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: To systematically summarize all relevant data and to define the current evidence on the utility of Pentraxin-3 (PTX3) as a biomarker for acute appendicitis (AA) in children.

Methods: This review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were systematically searched for studies comparing the levels of PTX3 in patients with AA vs healthy controls or non-specific abdominal pain (NSAP).