Abstract:
Acute appendicitis is one of the most common cause of abdominal surgeries. It is responsible
for approximately 72,000 deaths globally per year. Yet its etiology has still not been
elucidated. The study was conducted to verify if the viruses are the etiological agents of acute
appendicitis. For this purpose, the incidence of cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus
(EBV), mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) was studied in Pakistani acute appendicitis
patients. Genomic DNA was extracted from the peripheral blood samples of thirty patients
suffering from acute appendicitis who had undergone appendectomies. Qualitative
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were employed to screen DNA samples of acute
appendicitis patients for EBV, CMV and MMTV. Thirty age and gender matched peripheral
blood samples that had no clinical manifestations related to viral infections were taken as
controls. CMV was the most frequently detected virus 13.3% , followed by EBV 10% and
least frequently detected was MMTV 3.3%. This indicates that these viruses maybe the
etiological agents of acute appendicitis and maybe associated with the pathogenesis of acute
appendicitis. To further evaluate and confirm these findings additional studies need to be
conducted.
