Background: The purpose of this study was to determine if AP is an indicator of pancreatic head carcinoma, and if it is associated with disease stage. Methods: A retrospective review of the medical records of 154 patients with pancreatic head cancer who were treated from January 2006 to December 2011 was conducted. Patients were divided into 2 groups: those with AP and those without. Data extracted and compared including age, gender, the presence of AP, and laboratory results. Results: This study included 103 males (67.8%) and 49 females (32.9%), with an age range of 38-83 years. The frequency of main pancreatic duct dilation (MPD) was higher in patients without pancreatitis than in patients with AP (P = 0.018). There were 18, 14, 4, and 2 patients in the AP group, and 34, 26, 31, and 23 patients in non-pancreatitis group with stage I, II, III, and IV disease, respectively, (P = 0.007). The median length of tumors ir AP group was 3.41 cm, and that in the nonpancreatitis group was 4.15 cm (P = 0.028).No correlation was found between disease stage and the presence of MPD dilatation (P = 0.646). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.66 (P = 0.003; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.568-0.753) indicated that AP itself was insufficient for predicting disease stage. Conclusions: AP is an early manifestation of pancreatic head carcinoma, although the presence of AP is insufficient to predict disease stage.
[1]Jilin Univ, Dept Hepatobiliary Pancreat Surg, Hosp 3, China Japan Union Hosp, Changchun 130033, Peoples R China.
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