Laboratory diagnosis of pancreatitis in adults

the early stages to identify a disease of the pancreasGlands, like pancreatitis or chronic pancreatitis, is very difficult. All due to the fact that the pain with this disease can be of different degrees of severity: from a mild tingling in the abdomen to a practically painful shock. An even more frequent phenomenon in pancreatitis is the onset of pain in the epigastric region. More often, such pains are similar to the symptoms of various diseases of the stomach, including gastritis.

Sometimes an incorrect approach to diagnosing a disease causes adult patients to suffer from pain for a long time, because instead of pancreatitis, doctors recognize, for example, gastritis.

Also, with progressive pancreatitis, another type of pain may appear - the shingles. Patients at the same time feel that painful sensations are given in the back as with an attack of angina( one of the forms of ischemic heart disease).In this regard, patients immediately rush to the cardiologist and perform the wrong treatment.

That's why, based on any one particular symptom of the disease will be fundamentally wrong, and to calculate pancreatitis in adult patients, a variety of different studies will be needed. These include ultrasound of the pancreas, and computed tomography, and ERHPG, and a blood test, and gastroscopy. In addition to these adult patients, another laboratory diagnosis awaits in order to carry out the correct treatment - examination of urine, saliva and feces.

Pancreas ultrasound

Among others, the diagnostic method, called ultrasound, allows you to determine the severity of the disease most accurately, and also consider the injured organ in different projections in order to prescribe the correct treatment. Another obvious plus of ultrasound is accessibility, as well as convenience( the patient is only required not to take food 12 hours before the procedure and give the doctor 10 minutes for the examination itself).What are the signs that should begin to carry out one of the most accurate diagnostic methods for detecting pancreatitis?

• If there is a periodical discomfort in the upper abdomen;
• In the detection of changes in the shape of organs in the adult X-ray, such as the stomach or duodenum;
• With pathological changes in the stomach( often with a change in its posterior wall);
• With suspicious changes in the pancreas revealed by laboratory studies;
• With muscular tension in the anterior abdominal wall, as well as their soreness;
• With a particularly sharp drop in the weight of the patient, for no apparent reason and ineffective treatment of this ailment;
• In case of a disorder of the stool and the detection of remnants of undigested food in the feces;
• With jaundice.

Computed tomography

Another powerful method for detecting pancreatitis is computed tomography( CT).Such a study implies irradiation of the upper abdomen with X-rays, whereby a special detector will be able to catch through the tissue the same reflected rays. It is on the basis of the reflected rays that the desired image is constructed and then studied by the doctor. Since the CT scan produces a pancreas map in the section, it is quite easy to distinguish it from nearby adjacent organs and to prescribe the necessary treatment.

Although CT is not so easily accessible and safe, unlike ultrasound, it is this method that can detect edema, as well as calcium deposits( which are difficult to diagnose in a normal X-ray study in overweight patients) that are characteristic of pancreatitis.

The main feature of CT is that, in order to contrast the images, which facilitates the diagnostic task, the patient will need to take inside or intravenously a special substance, and after using it to refuse to eat food while checking and making the necessary decisions to implementFurther treatment.

Why is CT scan not so safe research as opposed to ultrasound? There are important factors:

1. Pregnant women are strictly prohibited from doing CT;
2. Contrast substance is able to cause a sharp negative reaction to this substance in patients with a heightened sensitivity in the anamnesis;
3. Severe kidney or liver disease can also badly affect the presence of contrast agent in the body.

ERCP Endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography( ERCP or just) helps in the study of the bile ducts, and pancreatic ducts. This method of diagnostics is carried out by filling the ducts through an endoscope with a special X-ray material, and also by examining the organs with a special X-ray device.

In total, this procedure takes from 10 to 90 minutes in adult patients, then everything depends on what treatment the doctor will prescribe based on the received data.

Blood

In case of pancreatitis, many of the processes and substances in the patient's modified. This also applies to the contents of various substances in the patient's blood, so the patient should do two whole blood tests. These include:

• General clinical analysis, i.e. Laboratory diagnostics of pancreatitis, which will allow to calculate the disease according to the norm of leukocytes, and also on the increased rate of erythrocyte sedimentation. We should also mention such a substance as an antigen of the pancreas, which is revealed only at the analysis( laboratory diagnostics), detectable in acute pancreatitis;
• Biochemical analysis of blood or blood biochemical laboratory diagnostics, revealing of pancreatitis increased glucose, amylase, as well as reducing the amount of cholesterol and globulin.

gastroscopy

endoscopy or gastroscopy designed for inspection of the esophagus and antrum of the stomach and duodenum by using a tool such as a gastroscope that is inserted into the stomach via the mouth.

However, how is this linked to EGD with pancreatitis and pancreatitis? The fact is that because of inflammation in the pancreas, other digestive organs can also be involved in this process. To know for sure, the patient, as well as with ultrasound, will need to give up food and be subjected to EGDS on the day of analysis. Then the doctor will use the gastroscope to examine the gastrointestinal tract and take the material for a biopsy.

In general, laboratory diagnosis of pancreatitis is not a complicated process. The main thing in this matter is not to pull the cat by the tail, so as not to start the disease. It is better to be checked several times and try to take measures and treatment, if after all the doctor diagnoses pancreatitis, than to carry out treatment of imaginary gastritis, or even worse - run disease to such an extent that all life will have to sit on a rigid diet.

Useful video about pancreatic diseases