Medical imaging for pancreatic diseases: Prediction of severe acute pancreatitis complicated with acute respiratory distress syndrome

Abstract

In this editorial we comment on the article published in the recent issue of the World Journal of Gastroenterology [2022; 28 (19): 2123-2136]. We pay attention to how to construct a simpler and more reliable new clinical predictive model to early identify patients at high risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) associated with severe acute pancreatitis (SAP), and to early predict the severity of organ failure from chest computed tomography (CT) findings in SAP patients. As we all know, SAP has a sudden onset, is a rapidly changing condition, and can be complicated with ARDS and even multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, and its mortality rate has remained high. At present, there are many clinical scoring systems for AP, including the bedside index for severity in AP, acute physiology and chronic health evaluation II, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, Japanese severe score, quick sepsis-related organ failure assessment, etc. However, some of these scoring systems are complex and require multiple and difficult clinical parameters for risk stratification. Although the aforementioned biomarkers are readily available, their ability to predict ARDS varies. Accor-dingly, it is extremely necessary to establish a simple and valuable novel model to predict the development of ARDS in AP. In addition, the extra-pancreatic manifestations of AP patients often involve the chest, among which pleural effusion and pulmonary consolidation are the more common complications. Therefore, by measuring the semi-quantitative indexes of chest CT in AP patients, such as the amount of pleural effusion and the number of lobes involved as pulmonary consolidation, it has important reference value for the early diagnosis of SAP complicated with ARDS and is expected to provide a basis for the early treatment of ARDS.