Role of C - Reactive Protein as a Severity Marker in Acute Pancreatitis

CONCLUSION: CRP as we know continues to be an acute phase reactant and a non specific marker of inflammation due to multiple etiology and it’s values increase with increasing age of the patient. Eventhough CRP level has good sensitivity and specificity in finding the patients with severe acute pancreatitis and it is better than most of the clinical scoring systems in sensitivity and specificity, it a poor marker in this regard as it’s peak values are reached only after 48-72 hrs which is the therapeutic golden hour only within which treatments if instituted are rewarding as given in the literature. But according to this study, it can be useful in the following regards. Increased values of CRP above the significant range correlates positively with the occurrence of necrosis in pancreatitis and can be used to decide on patients who need a CECT as this investigation is expensive and is not widely available. It correlates positively with duration of stay of patients in hospital thereby, giving the morbidity of acute pancreatitis. Value of CRP levels in predicting the prognosis of the disease and the need for surgery for local complications remains to be elucidated