Hepatic arterial perfusion increases in the early stage of severe acute pancreatitis patients: Evaluation by perfusion computed tomography

Abstract: Purpose: Although hepatic perfusion abnormalities have been reported in patients with acute pancreatitis, hepatic perfusion with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) has not been quantitatively evaluated in humans. Therefore, we investigated hepatic perfusion in patients with SAP using perfusion CT. Materials and methods: Hepatic perfusion CT was performed in 67 patients with SAP within 3 days after symptom onset. The patients were diagnosed as having SAP according to the Atlanta criteria. Fifteen cases were established as a control group. Perfusion CT was obtained for 54s beginning with a bolus injection of 40ml of contrast agent (600–630mgI/kg) at a flow rate of 4ml/s. Perfusion data were analyzed by the dual-input maximum slope method to obtain hepatic arterial perfusion (HAP) and hepatic portal perfusion (HPP). Finally, we compared HAP and HPP in SAP patients with those in the control group, respectively. Results: Average HAP was significantly higher in SAP patients than in the control group (75.1±38.0 vs. 38.2±9.0ml/min/100ml; p <0.001). There was no significant difference in average HPP between SAP patients and the control group (206.7±54.9 vs. 204.4±38.5ml/min/100ml; p =0.92). Conclusion: Using quantitative analysis on perfusion CT, we first demonstrated an increase of HAP in the right hepatic lobe in SAP patients. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]