Clinical and radiological indicators of severity in patients with acute pancreatitis.

UNLABELLED

The purpose of this study was to estimate the degree of association between clinical (Ranson criteria) and radiological variables (Abdominal CT scan) with degree of severity in patients with a diagnosis of acute pancreatitis.

METHOD

All patients discharged with the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis from January 1, 2010 through December 31, 2012 in a community hospital were selected (N=174). The following variables were studied: sex; age; weight; height; admission and discharge dates; presence of several chronic conditions; laboratory results included in Ranson criteria; abdominal CT category; outcome, including fatality surgery, and other complications. Analysis included descriptive statistics and Risk-Ratios for complications for different groups of subjects, using clinical and radiological criteria.

RESULTS

The incidence rate of complications, including fatality, surgery and organ failure was 36.2%. Factors that showed significant associations with the risk of complication on crude analysis were gallbladder disease with a RR=1.78 ($95% CI: 1.22, 2.60) and abnormal abdominal CT with a RR=1.85 (95% CI: 1.11, 3.07). with multivariate analysis, gallbladder disease, abnormal abdominal CT, and presence of 3 or more Ranson's criteria showed increased risk for complications, but the results did not reach statistical significance.

DISCUSSION

The factors that seemed to be associated with increased rate of complications in subjects with acute pancreatitis were gallbladder disease, abnormal abdominal CT, and 3 or more Ranson's criteria. The Results did not show statistical significance probably because of low statistical power of the study.