The Impact of Protein Glycosylation on the Identification of Patients with Pediatric Appendicitis

The identification of pediatric appendicitis is challenging due to the lack of specific markers thereby several factors are included in the diagnostic process such as abdominal pain, ultrasonography and altered laboratory parameters (C reactive protein, absolute neutrophil cell number and white blood cell number). The glycosylation pattern of serum N-glycome was analyzed in this study of 38 controls and 40 patients with pediatric appendicitis. The glycans were released by enzymatic deglycosylation followed by fluorescent labeling and solid-phase extraction. The prepared samples were analyzed by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography with fluorescence and mass-spectrometric detection. The generated data were analyzed by multiple statistical tests involving the most important laboratory parameters as well. Significant differences associated with the examined patient groups were revealed suggesting the potential use of glycosylation analysis supporting the detection of pediatric appendicitis.