Immune-manipulation of the inflammatory response in acute pancreatitis. What can be expected?

Severe acute pancreatitis still has a high mortality rate and multiple organ failure is considered to be a severe complication of the disease. Activated polymorphonuclear leukocytes have an important role in the development of multiple organ failure which may result from acute pancreatitis and they are an important pathogenetic factor in the severity of this disease. Therefore, a logical therapeutic approach is to limit the organ damage by selective suppression of inflammatory mediators involved in the systemic inflammatory response syndrome and protect against systemic complication. In this paper, we review the recent literature data on the possible manipulation of the immune response in acute pancreatitis.

Pancreatic involvement in Salmonella infection.

CONTEXT: Salmonella has been identified as a causative agent of acute pancreatitis. OBJECTIVE: We prospectively evaluated the frequency of acute pancreatitis, pancreatic enzyme elevation and morphological pancreatic abnormalities in patients with Salmonella infection. SUBJECTS: Thirty consecutive patients with salmonellosis (Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis: n=25; Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium: n=5) and 30 sex- and age-matched healthy subjects were studied. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All subjects underwent serum amylase and lipase determination and ultrasonography. RESULTS: None of the subjects developed acute pancreatitis. Two patients (6.7%) and two controls showed serum amylase activity above the upper reference limit whereas, in five patients (16.7%) and one control subject (3.3%), the serum lipase activity appeared above the upper reference limit. Salmonella infection significantly increased serum activity of lipase (P<0.001) while it did not significantly affect serum amylase levels (P=0.204). Serum lipase activity was significantly higher in patients infected by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium than in those infected by Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (P=0.012). Ultrasonography did not show pancreatic abnormalities in any of the subjects. CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrated an elevation of serum lipase activity in gastroenteritis due to Salmonella infection, but this elevation does not seem to have clinical significance. The elevation of serum lipase seems to be particularly related to infection from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium.