title: [The role of a workflow in diagnosing biliary causes for acute pancreatitis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish a practical and effective clinical pathway (CP) for the etiological diagnosis of acute biliary pancreatitis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 2216 patients enrolled were randomly divided into control group (n = 1120) and CP group (n = 1096) according to different etiological diagnosis methods including following doctor's established experiences and habits and the designed CP in our study.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no significant difference in baseline data between the two groups. The etiology of acute pancreatitis was determined in 91.1% (999/1096) of cases in the CP group which was significantly higher than the control group (65.5%, 734/1120), P < 0.05. The enhanced etiological determination of CP group was mainly consisted of the increased detection of biliary stones, duodenal diseases as well as pancreas divisum, P < 0.05. The positive etiological determination of magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in the CP group were 59.1% (273/462) and 86.0% (98/114), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The CP established in this study significantly enhances the biliary etiological determination of acute pancreatitis. It is easy to be conducted and may be of importance to improve the quality of etiological diagnosis of acute pancreatitis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Luo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zuo
authors.forename: Chun-hui
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jin-lin
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ming-guang
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Cheng-wei
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Tang
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D019091:Critical Pathways; D005260:Female; D005704:Gallbladder / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies