Abstract
There is no effective serologic parameter to distinguish different types of pancreatitis now. To distinguish between acute pancreatitis (AP) and acute exacerbations of chronic pancreatitis (CP) and to determine whether fibrosis occurs in CP, we evaluated the ability to produce white blood cells (WBCs), the neutrophil-to-retinol-binding protein (RBP) ratio (called the WNR), the product of the gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) level, and the 5'-nucleotide-to-RBP ratio (called the GNR). We evaluated the newly proposed difference index RBP and analyzed the effectiveness of the WNR and GNR in 691 patients with pancreatic diseases. We performed univariate and multivariate analyses of serological indices and their correlations with RBP and performed receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analyses of the WNR and GNR. The serum RBP level decreased markedly in AP compared with that in the acute stage of CP (p < 0.05). The GGT, alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total protein (TP), albumin (ALB), prealbumin (PA), 5'-nucleotide, and uric acid (UC) serum levels were significantly higher for fibrotic CP than for the acute stage of CP without fibrosis (p < 0.05). With progressing to pancreatic fibrosis, the liver injury-related indicators, prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), D-Dimer, aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and GGT, gradually increased (p < 0.05). ROC curve analysis suggests that both the WNR (area under the curve [AUC] = 0.821) and GNR (AUC = 0.778) can be used to differentiate pancreatitis types.