Scintigraphy with labelled leukocytes in acute pancreatitis. Preliminary results]

This study aims to evaluate the contribution of the 99mTc-HMPAO labelled leukocyte in the prognostic assessment of patients with acute pancreatitis. We have compared the usual methods of prognostic evaluation (computed tomography CT and the Ranson clinical score scale) with the scintigraphic findings in 23 consecutive patients with a clinical diagnosis of mild or severe acute pancreatitis. All 6 patients with severe pancreatitis showed an uptake which was mostly mild. 9/17 patients with mild pancreatitis showed uptake, which also frequently had a low intensity. When the severity index of CT was compared with the leukocyte results, the only patient with a high severity index showed a grade 3 uptake. However, in over 50% of the patients with a low severity index, uptake, generally having a low intensity, was found. When the uptake degree was compared with the Ranson score level, we observed a predominance of mild uptake in both patients with mild and severe pancreatitis. Considering these results, we believe that the lack of uptake in the leukocyte study in a patient with acute pancreatitis can be interpreted as a good prognosis sign. The significance of the finding of uptake in the pancreatic area is uncertain and studies should be performed in larger sized samples.