Background: Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a mild and self-limiting disease in most patients, but necrotizing pancreatitis develops in up to 20 - 30% of the cases. Early recognition of severe AP has been considered as a key determinant of successful therapy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical value of fetuin A as the new predictor of complications and fatal outcome during acute pancreatitis (AP).
Methods: The study included 40 patients with AP of diverse severity (28 mild, 12 severe), assessed during the early phase of AP (1st - 7th day of hospitalization). Fetuin A level was measured by ELISA kit (BioVendor).
Results: Median serum fetuin A concentrations had a tendency to decrease during examination from 0,371 g/L at admission to 0,288 g/L on the 7th day of hospitalization. In each of 7 days of observation, correlation between the increase in fetuin A and the absolute number of RBC was found (R = 0,34: 1st day R = 0,35: 3rd day, p < 0,05; R = 0,57: 5th day, p < 0,001; R = 0,65: 7th day, p < 0,01). Additionally, we observed the reverse relationship between the decrease in fetuin A and the increase in some inflammatory markers (IL-6: R = -0,61, p < 0,0001; SAA: R = -0,58, p < 0,001; HGF: R = -0,60, p < 0,01; PCT: R = -0,475, p < 0,01). The strongest positive correlation was noticed on the 5th day of hospitalization between decreased levels of fetuin A and albumin (R = 0,83; p < 0,0001).
Conclusions: Fetuin A level monitoring is potentially a new marker for non-invasive and accurate prediction status for the hospitalization of patients with AP similar to other negative acute phase proteins like albumin.