MRCP in the prognosis of acute pancreatitis

Background: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a serious disease characterized by inflammation of the pancreas. Material/Methods: We prospectively investigated a total of 42 patients treated at Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine General Surgery Department with the preliminary diagnosis of AP from January 2010 to June 2011, and who underwent biochemical tests and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP). Patient age, sex, amylase levels, and other biochemical parameters, as well as treatment type, complications, etiologic factors, morbidity rates, hospital length of stay, and Ranson scores, were included in the evaluation. Results: Our study population consisted of 24 women and 18 men. The serum amylase levels ranged between 146 and 3086 U/L (mean 1271.07 U/L). When patients were scored according to the Ranson scoring system, 3 (7.1%) patients had a Ranson score of 0, 10 (23.8%) patients had a score of 1, 15 (35.7%) patients had a score of 2, 11 (26.2%) patients had a score of 3, 2 (4.8%) patients had a score of 4, and only 1 (2.4%) patient had a score of 5. We found abnormal pancreatic duct morphology in 10.3% of the patients who had mild pancreatitis attacks and 33.3% of the patients who had moderate pancreatitis attacks. Although we observed a correlation between the Ranson score and pancreatic duct morphology, this relationship was not significant (P>0.05). Conclusions: Based on the results of our study, we believe that MRCP and MR are as effective as CT in the follow-up and treatment of acute pancreatitis. © Med Sci Tech.