(al-vă-rod′ō)

[A. Alvarado, U.S. physician]
A diagnostic tool to estimate the likelihood that a patient with abdominal pain has appendicitis. It includes the following clinical features: 1) an elevated white blood cell count (esp. when associated with a left shift); 2) abdominal pain that migrates to the right lower quadrant of the abdomen; 3) loss of appetite; 4) nausea and/or vomiting; 5) tenderness in the right lower quadrant; 6) rebound tenderness; and 7) fever. Patients with few of these clinical features are unlikely to have an inflamed appendix; patients with most of these findings are likely to benefit from appendectomy.