Urine test 'may detect appendicitis'
Specialists have discovered that urine tests may soon be able to predict the onset of appendicitis.
Experts at the Children's Hospital Boston in Massachusetts have found that leucine-rich alpha-2-glycoprotein (LRG), which is present in urine, acts as a biomarker for the condition.
A team of emergency medicine physicians and scientists at the Proteomics Center at the facility, led by Dr Richard Bachur, say that the process may eliminate the need for emergency appendectomy and other forms of surgery.
The healthcare professionals also state that the method may eliminate the need for children to have CT scans to identify the condition.
"Although these advances have improved the diagnosis and decreased complications from appendicitis, CT scans also expose children to radiation that may increase the lifetime risk of cancer," he says, which may boost the need for family health insurance.
In other news, experts at the University of Minnesota recently found that the presence of the metabolite NNAL in a person's urine may give an indication that they will contract lung cancer.
By Stephen Tate 
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