[The role and importance of biochemical markers in diagnosis of alcoholic acute pancreatitis].

Abstract

Alcoholic acute pancreatitis occurs in 10% of alcoholics, who take more than 80 g alcohol daily. Different biochemical markers are used to diagnose acute pancreatitis, and some of them may help in establishing etiology of acute pancreatitis. This study is a prospective review of 21 patients. All patients were hospitalized at the Department for Gastroenterology and Hepatology or at the Department for Surgery of the Clinical Centre of Nif in the period from August 1st 2009 to March 1st 2010 with diagnosis of acute alcoholic pancreatitis. Detailed anamnesis, clinical examination, biochemical analyses and ultrasonography of the upper abdomen were done in all patients. All patients provided data on alcohol abuse. The analysis of the corresponding biochemical parameters revealed a statistically significant correlation between the following values: serum amylase and serum lipase (R = 0.964674; p < 0.001), cholesterol and triglycerides (R = 0.93789; p < 0.001), total and direct bilirubin (R = 0.857899; p < 0.001) and between aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase (R = 0.824461, p < 0.001) in patients with alcoholic acute pancreatitis. In addition, there was a statistically significant correlation between the values of serum amylase and urinary amylase (R = 0.582742, p < 0.001). The analysis of biochemical markers showed that some of them were significant for beforehand diagnosis of alcoholic acute pancreatitis, which is in accordance with other studies. Some biochemical parameters can be potential predictors of alcoholic acute pancreatitis (lipase/amylase ratio > 2, greater ratio of aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase, enhanced triglycerides and values of mean corpuscular volume.