Clinical diagnosis of acute appendicitis can be difficult and yet it is the most common surgical abdominal emergency.
There is no specific clinical diagnostic test for appendicitis, and removing a healthy appendix - which happens often - is best avoided.
"It may sound odd, but asking patients whether their pain worsened going over speed bumps on their way in to hospital could help doctors in a diagnosis. It turns out to be as good as many other ways of assessing people with suspected appendicitis," Dr Helen Ashdown of the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford said.
Researchers from the University of Oxford and Stoke Mandeville Hospital asked 101 adults referred to hospital for suspected appendicitis if their pain worsened while travelling over speed bumps. All participants were questioned within 24 hours of their journey to hospital.
Patients were classed as 'speed bump positive' if speed bumps made their pain worse, or 'speed bump negative' if their pain stayed the same, if they were unsure, or if their pain improved.
Sixty-four patients had travelled over speed bumps on their way to hospital. 54 of these were 'speed bump positive'. 34 of the 64 had a confirmed diagnosis of acute appendicitis, of which 33