Organ failure associated with severe acute pancreatitis

AIM: To investigate the relationship between severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) and organ failure.METHODS: Clinical data of 74 cases of SAP from Jan. 1993 to Dec. 2002 were retrospectively reviewed, and the relationship between organ failure and age, gender, etiology,extent of necrosis, infection of necrosis and mortality was analyzed.RESULTS: A total of 47 patients (63.5 %) showed organ failure, 20 patients (27.0 %) multiple organ failure, whereas 27 patients (36.5 %) with dysfunction of a single organ system. Pulmonary failure was the most common organ dysfunction (23.0 %) among single organ failures. There were no significant differences in age, gender and gallstone pancreatitis among patients with or without organ failure (P>0.05). The incidence of organ failure in infected necrosis was not higher compared with sterile necrosis, and patients with increased amount of necrosis did not have an increased prevalence of organ failure (P>0.05). Patients with organ failure had a higher mortality rate compared with those without organ failure (P<0.05). The death of SAP was associated with multiple organ failure (P<0.005), pulmonary failure (P<0.005), cardiovascular dysfunction (P<0.05) and gastrointestinal dysfunction (P<0.05).CONCLUSION: Organ failure is common in patients with SAP, and patients with multiple organ failure and pulmonary failure have a higher mortality rate. Prevention and active treatment of organ failure can improve the outcome of patients with SAP.

Use of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy to rapidly diagnose gastric endoscopic biopsies

AIM: To determine if Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR)spectroscopy of endoscopic biopsies could accurately diagnose gastritis and malignancy.METHODS: A total of 123 gastroscopic samples, including 11 cases of cancerous tissues, 63 cases of chronic atrophic gastritis tissues, 47 cases of chronic superficial gastritis tissues and 2 cases of normal tissues, were obtained from the First Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, China. A modified attenuated total reflectance (ATR) accessory was linked to a WQD-500 FT-IR spectrometer for spectral measurement followed by submission of the samples for pathologic analysis. The spectral characteristics for different types of gastroscopic tissues were summarized and correlated with the corresponding pathologic results.RESULTS: Distinct differences were observed in the FTIR spectra of normal, atrophic gastritis, superficial gastritis and malignant gastric tissues. The sensitivity of FT-IR for detection of gastric cancer, chronic atrophic gastritis and superficial gastritis was 90.9%, 82.5%, 91.5%, and specificity was 97.3%, 91.7%, 89.5% respectively.CONCLUSION: FT-IR spectroscopy can distinguish gastric inflammation from malignancy.