[C-reactive protein and lactate dehydrogenase as single prognostic factors of severity in acute pancreatitis]

Ranson and Glasgow scores are routinely used for prediction of severity in acute pancreatitis. We undertook a prospective study to investigate the role of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and C-reactive protein (CRP) as potential single predictors of severity in acute pancreatitis. In our study we included 100 patients with diagnosis of acute pancreatitis admitted to our hospital during last two years. The inclusion criteria consisted of a combination of clinical features, a typical case history, elevation of serum pancreatic enzymes and diagnosis confirmed by imaging studies (ultrasound or computerised tomography). We used Ranson score for assesment of severity and compared it with single parameters as LDH and CRP on the first and the third day after admission. Cut off values for predicting local and systemic complications were > or =3 for Ranson score, 320 IU for LDH and 5 mg/L for CRP. Ranson score showed highest sensitivity in the prediction of local and systemic complication of acute pancreatitis. Specificity and diagnostic accuracy were highest for LDH on the first day (67.74; 57%). Diagnostic accuracy for Ranson score and CRP on the third day after admission was around 50%. We can conclude that LDH and CRP are available, simple and economical biochemical parameters that can help us predict complications of acute pancreatitis in the early phase of the disease. They showed similar diagnostic accuracy as the far more clinically used Ranson score.