Plasma pentraxin 3 concentrations in patients with acute pancreatitis

Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) belongs to the acute phase proteins; its concentration increases significantly in the early stages of inflammation. In nearly 20% of patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) escalated inflammation leads to the development of severe forms of the disease. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pattern of changes in PTX3 concentration in patients with AP at the early stage of the disease (first 5 days from admission) and to assess the relationship between PTX3 and other inflammatory markers.

The study included 40 patients with AP (16 women and 24 men)--12 with severe and 28 with mild form of AP. Concentrations of PTX3, serum amyloid A (SAA), C-reactive protein (CRP), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), procalcitonin (PCT), polymorphonuclear elastase (PMN-elastase), interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 18 (IL-18), and soluble receptor for TNFalpha (sTNFR75) were measured in samples collected on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th day of the hospital stay. Plasma PTX3 was measured also in the control group, consisting of 37 age and sex-matched healthy subjects.

The highest concentrations of PTX3 were noted on the first day after admission. The concentrations were higher in patients with the severe compared to those with the mild form of AP (median 17.2 vs. 4.0 ng/mL on day 1, p = 0.03; 6.1 vs. 2.2 on day 5, p = 0.044). On each of the study days significant correlations were found between PTX3 and SAA, IL-6, and PMN-elastase (p < 0.05).

The pattern of changes in PTX3 concentration in the early phase of AP is similar to that of IL-6, and its peak levels are achieved earlier compared to CRP. Our findings suggest that PTX3 may be useful in early evaluation and prediction of the severity of AP.