Evaluation of patients with acute pancreatitis by means of chromogenic peptide substrate assays and the proenzyme functional inhibition index

Using chromogenic peptide substrate assays the severity and clinical course were evaluated in 37 patients with acute pancreatitis. Retrospective clinical evaluation revealed that 20 patients had a severe disease, whereas 17 patients had mild acute pancreatitis. Seven of the patients with severe acute pancreatitis died. The proenzyme functional inhibition index (PFI index) is defined as the sum of deviations from the normal plasma pool values of plasma prekallikrein, functional kallikrein inhibition, plasminogen, antiplasmin, prothrombin and antithrombin III. Increased values are counted as positive, whereas reductions compared with the normal plasma pool values are recognized as negative. During the second day after admission the PFI index revealed significantly more negative values in severe cases than in patients with mild acute pancreatitis, -159 in severe case, -74 in mild cases (median values, P less than 0.05). The PFI index values were maintained strongly negative for the following 3 days in severe cases whereas the index was brought to positive values during the same period in patients with mild acute pancreatitis. The fatal cases revealed strongly negative PFI index values for the whole observation period. The patients with severe acute pancreatitis were earlier identified by means of the PFI index than by individual parameters also used for calculating the index. The results show that by means of the PFI index severity of acute pancreatitis can be recognized during early stages of the disease.