Ultrasonic features of acute acalculous cholecystitis developing at different stages of acute pancreatitis / 医学研究生学报

ABSTRACT

Objective Acute pancreatitis exhibits different clinical and ultrasonic features in patients complicated with acute acalculous cholecystitis ( AAC) at different stages .The aim of this study was to analyze the ultrasonic characteristics of acute pancreati-tis complicated with AAC at different stages . Methods We retrospectively analyzed the clinical data about 41 cases of acute pancrea-titis with moderate to severe AAC .According to whether AAC developed within or after 2 weeks of the onset of acute pancreatitis , we divided the patients into an early-stage group (n=18) and a late-stage group (n=23).We recorded the gallbladder size, gallbladder wall thickness , fluid around the gallbladder , biliary sludge deposition and the Murphy′s sign by ultrasonography , obtained AAC-related clinical and laboratory data concerning body temperature , Murphy′s sign, WBC count and C-reactive protein level , and analyzed the ultrasonic features of AAC at different stages in the acute pancreatitis patients. Results All the patients experienced a fever of >38.5℃, 38.89%with chills in the early onset group and 47.83%in the late onset group .Increases were observed in patients of the early-and late-stage groups in the WBC count ( 94.44%vs 82.61%) , the C-reactive protein level ( 100%vs 91.30%) , and the fluid volume around the gallbladder (94.44%vs 60.86%, P<0.05), but incidence rate of gallbladder wall thickening was significantly lower in the former than in the latter group (11.11%vs 78.26%, P<0.01). Conclusion AAC developing at different stages of acute pancreatitis has different ultrasonic features , with higher incidence rates of fluid around the gallbladder in the early stage and gallbladder wall thickening in the late stage.