Serum fetuin A concentrations in patients with acute pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a mild and self-limiting disease in most patients, but necrotizing pancreatitis develops in up to 20 - 30% of the cases. Early recognition of severe AP has been considered as a key determinant of successful therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical value of fetuin A as the new predictor of complications and fatal outcome during acute pancreatitis (AP).

The study included 40 patients with AP of diverse severity (28 mild, 12 severe), assessed during the early phase of AP (1st - 7th day of hospitalization). Fetuin A level was measured by ELISA kit (BioVendor).

Median serum fetuin A concentrations had a tendency to decrease during examination from 0,371 g/L at admission to 0,288 g/L on the 7th day of hospitalization. In each of 7 days of observation, correlation between the increase in fetuin A and the absolute number of RBC was found (R = 0,34: 1st day R = 0,35: 3rd day, p < 0,05; R = 0,57: 5th day, p < 0,001; R = 0,65: 7th day, p < 0,01). Additionally, we observed the reverse relationship between the decrease in fetuin A and the increase in some inflammatory markers (IL-6: R = -0,61, p < 0,0001; SAA: R = -0,58, p < 0,001; HGF: R = -0,60, p < 0,01; PCT: R = -0,475, p < 0,01). The strongest positive correlation was noticed on the 5th day of hospitalization between decreased levels of fetuin A and albumin (R = 0,83; p < 0,0001).

Fetuin A level monitoring is potentially a new marker for non-invasive and accurate prediction status for the hospitalization of patients with AP similar to other negative acute phase proteins like albumin.