title: A study on clinical spectrum at acute stage of pancreatitis--a proposal to grade severity in mild cases.
abstract: Two hundred patients with pancreatitis were studied in respect to incidence and severity of 26 items of symptoms, signs and laboratory data. Factor and cluster analyses were performed on correlation coefficients between the items and both gave similar results which allowed classification of the items into three groups: the 1st group consisting of symptoms and objective signs, the 2nd group consisting of laboratory test items related to liver function and the 3rd group consisting of test data concerning acute inflammation of the pancreas. The 1st, followed by the 3rd item-group, had a high correlation with the overall severity judgement made by individual physicians and with that by the central committee concerning a CDP-choline trial. Impairment in the 2nd item-group was particularly apparent in patients with biliary-associated pancreatitis. Subsequent scalogram analysis was carried out to investigate the relationship between the incidence of the items and overall severity. Finally, operational criteria for the assessment of overall severity were proposed.
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000097:blood / Q000145:classification* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000652:urine