Lung vascular permeability in patients with acute pancreatitis.

Acute pancreatitis may be complicated by acute lung injury associated with increased lung vascular permeability to plasma protein. The pulmonary accumulation of the plasma protein transferrin, radiolabelled in vivo with indium-113m, was monitored using a portable probe radiation detector in sixteen patients with acute pancreatitis. Plasma protein accumulation (PPA) indices were within normal limits (less than 0.5 X 10(-3)min-1) in all survivors (n = 10) and elevated in all but one of the non-survivors. All non-survivors had severe acute pancreatitis as judged by standard criteria. Thus increased lung vascular permeability was not a constant feature of uncomplicated acute pancreatitis and was only observed in patients with multisystem failure accompanied by clinically evident acute lung injury.