ROLE OF PROCALCITONIN AS A PREDICTIVE MARKER IN ACUTE PANCREATITIS

Aim: To study the role of procalcitonin as a predictive marker in acute pancreatitis. Acute pancreatitis is one of the leading causes of hospitalization. Severity of acute pancreatitis varies from mild to severe. In severe cases of pancreatitis death occurs as a result of multiple organ failure during rst week and in the following weeks, the infection plays a more important role. Unfortunately, the demand for high standard technical equipment and potential risk of complications do not render guided FNAC and CECT an easily available and cost-effective approach. Thus, I have hypothesised that procalcitonin can act as a signicant predictive marker to help detect severity in acute pancreatitis as it is readily available and cost effective Materials And Method: It is a prospective observational study. Serum procalcitonin levels were checked in all patients of acute pancreatitis at admission and 72 hrs after admission. Contrast Enhanced Computed Tomography (CECT) abdomen was done at 72 hours after admission. Procalcitonin levels was correlated with Computed Tomography Severity Index (CTSI). Serum procalcitonin of ≥0.5 ng/ml was taken as signicant. Results: The study included a total of 44 subjects from both genders. Based on Atlanta's criteria, mild pancreatitis was seen in 9.09% (n=4) subjects and moderate pancreatitis was seen in 68.18% (n=30) severe pancreatitis was seen in 22.72% (n=10) study subjects. PCT values were signicantly higher in the severe pancreatitis group (5.4±1.75 ng/ml) compared to mild pancreatitis (0.621±0.54) with p=0.001. Conclusion: Within its limitations, the present study concludes that in subjects with acute pancreatitis, levels of serum Procalcitonin help in the accurate identication of subjects that have moderate to severe acute pancreatitis or will likely progress to severe acute pancreatitis, and is a reliable predictive indicator of disease severity