title: Capillary refill time as a guide for operational decision-making process of autoimmune pancreatitis: Preliminary results.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the efficacy of a novel intraoperative diagnostic technique for patients with preliminary diagnosis of autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP).
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with pancreatic surgery were reviewed to identify those who received a preliminary diagnosis of AIP between January 2010 and January 2014. The following data were collected prospectively for patients with a pathological diagnosis of AIP: clinical and demographic features, radiological and operative findings, treatment procedure, and intraoperative capillary refill time (CRT) in the pancreatic bed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eight patients (six males, two females; mean age: 51.4 years) met the eligibility criteria of pathologically confirmed diagnosis. The most frequent presenting symptoms were epigastric pain and weight loss. The most commonly conducted preoperative imaging studies were computed tomography and endoscopic retrograde pancreaticodoudenography. The most common intraoperative macroscopic observations were mass formation in the pancreatic head and diffuse hypervascularization in the pancreatic bed. All patients showed decreased CRT (median value: 0.76 s, range: 0.58-1.35). One-half of the patients underwent surgical resection and the other half received medical treatment without any further surgical intervention.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This preliminary study demonstrates a novel experience with measurement of CRT in the pancreatic bed during the intraoperative evaluation of patients with AIP.
authors.affiliation: Pinar Yazici, Department of General Surgery, Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital, 34371 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Pinar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Yazici
authors.affiliation: Pinar Yazici, Department of General Surgery, Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital, 34371 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ismail
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Ozsan
authors.affiliation: Pinar Yazici, Department of General Surgery, Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital, 34371 Istanbul, Turkey.
authors.forename: Unal
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Aydin
keywords: Autoimmune pancreatitis; Capillary refill time; Hypervascularity; Inflammation; Pancreatic mass