IDDF2019-ABS-0338\u2005Serum nutritional markers for assessment of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in chronic pancreatitis patients

Abstract

Background Pancreatic exocrine and endocrine insufficiency is the common complication of chronic pancreatitis (CP). Diabetes due to diseases of the exocrine pancreas was described as pancreatogenic or pan-creatogenous diabetes mellitus (DM). Available tests to assess pancreatic exocrine function in clinical practice are not widely used. The objective of this study is to investigate the potential nutritional markers for assessment of the severity of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in CP. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed on 158 CP patients. They were divided into two groups: CP with DM group which DM was caused by CP and receiving glucose-lowering treatment, and CP without DM group. Hemoglobin, albumin, prealbumin, calcium, phosphate, triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), apolipoprotein A, apolipoprotein B and lipoprotein (a) were analyzed and compared between these two groups. Results Albumin, prealbumin, LDL-C were significantly lower in CP with DM group than CP without DM group (36.17±3.53 vs. 38.31±3.83, p<0.01; 196±60.39 vs. 224.5±58.07, p<0.05; 2.11±0.68 vs. 2.48±0.75, p<0.01; respectively). Among the 36 patients with alcoholic CP, there was no difference in serum albumin, prealbumin level between CP patients with and without DM, but LDL-C was found to be lower in the former group (2.04±0.83 vs. 2.63±0.68, p<0.05). Conclusions Serum nutritional markers are associated with pancreatic exocrine insufficiency and LDL-C may be used to evaluate the degree of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency in CP.