Aim: The aim of this study was to assess the diagnostic value of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) as a new predictor of severity in patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) at early phase of disease.
Materials and method: The studied group involved 40 patients (16 women and 24 men) with AP admitted to Ist Dept. of Surgery Jagiellonian University Medical College in Krakow. Twenty-four patients had mild and twelve severe form of AP. Glasgow and Imrie scores were calculated to evaluate severity of AP. HGF concentrations were measured by ELISA (R&D Systems) on days 1, 3 and 5 after admission within 48 hours after onset of symptoms.
Results: Serum median concentrations of HGF was significantly higher in patients with severe versus mild clinical course of AP on each of the study days (7.61 vs 3.30 ng/mL, p = 0.05 on day 1; 7.19 vs 3.43, p = 0.04 on day 3 and 5.76 vs 2.42, p = 0.02 on day 5). HGF positively correlated with Glasgow and Imrie scores (R = 0.57 and R = 0.51). HGF negatively correlated with fetuin A, a negative acute phase protein (R = -0.60 on day 3 and R = -0.45 on day 5) and positively with CRP (R = 0.93; R = 0.80), SAA (R = 0.78; R = 0.82), IL-6 (R = 0.61; R = 0.77; R = 0.85 on day 1, 3 and 5, respectively) and PMN-elastase (R = 0.58; R = 0.64; R = 0.77). On day 1 of the study, HGF reached the diagnostic sensitivity of 100% and specificity of 50% for the detection of severe and moderate AP.
Conclusions: Serum HGF correlates with several inflammatory markers and clinical scores (Glasgow, Imrie) in patients with AP and may be considered a new promising tool in assessing the severity of acute pancreatitis.