Clinicobiochemical factors in predicting gallstones in necrotizing pancreatitis

Sixty-one patients with acute necrotizing pancreatitis were studied for age, sex, ASAT, ALAT, alkaline phosphatase, bilirubin and amylase 48 hours after admission, these factors having recently been found to be significant in predicting this gallstone-associated disease. Age, ASAT, ALAT and alkaline phosphatase were found to be significant. However, 38 per cent of the patients with pancreatitis and gallstones remained unidentified with these criteria only. Thus, more intensive methods of investigation should be used whenever gallstone-associated pancreatitis is suspected. Increased hepatic chemistry could seldom be explained by the necrotizing form of pancreatitis if there was no biliary tract cause.