system
Medical AI Inquiry: You were designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.
user
A 1-year-old boy is brought to the emergency room by his parents because of inconsolable crying and diarrhea for the past 6 hours. As the physician is concerned about acute appendicitis, she consults the literature base. She finds a paper with a table that summarizes data regarding the diagnostic accuracy of multiple clinical findings for appendicitis:
Clinical finding Sensitivity Specificity
Abdominal guarding (in children of all ages) 0.70 0.85
Anorexia (in children of all ages)
0.75 0.50
Abdominal rebound (in children ≥ 5 years of age) 0.85 0.65
Vomiting (in children of all ages) 0.40 0.63
Fever (in children from 1 month to 2 years of age) 0.80 0.80
Based on the table, the absence of which clinical finding would most accurately rule out appendicitis in this patient?"
assistant
Fever