Acute pancreatitis: a comparison of the severity of illness in cases first diagnosed before and after death, using a modified prognostic index.

The severity of disease in a series of patients in whom acute pancreatitis was diagnosed at autopsy was assessed by the retrospective application of a standard prognostic index modified for post-mortem use. The results were compared with cases dying of acute pancreatitis which was recognized during life and appropriately treated. No difference in disease severity could be identified between the two groups. This suggests that patients dying of acute pancreatitis unrecognized during life have a severe form of the disease and do not die because a mild attack is treated inappropriately. The condition appears to be unrecognized in such patients because it presents with atypical features.