Usefulness of infrared spectroscopy in diagnosis of acute pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND

The lack of a gold standard for the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis remains a problem. Our aim was to evaluate whether infrared spectroscopy of serum can establish the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis.

METHODS

Sixty-four patients with acute pancreatitis, 112 patients with non-pancreatic acute abdomen and 40 healthy subjects were studied. In addition to serum infrared spectral analysis, serum concentrations of amylase and lipase were measured on admission.

RESULTS

Infrared spectroscopy based on serum absorption patterns in the range 800-1000 nm successfully distinguished acute pancreatitis from acute abdominal disorders of extrapancreatic origin and from control specimens. The sensitivity, specificity and positive and negative predictive values of infrared spectroscopy on admission were 91, 91, 85, and 94%, respectively. Within 24 h of onset of symptoms, infrared spectroscopy, lipase and amylase showed similar areas under the ROC curves for infrared spectra of serum (0.93), lipase (0.96) and amylase (0.91).

CONCLUSIONS

The successful classification of infrared spectra in patients with acute pancreatitis implies that the pathophysiology of disease alters the composition of the specimen in a characteristic fashion--in this case the serum make-up reflects the presence of acute pancreatitis.