A new method for the diagnosis of acute hemorrhagic-necrotizing pancreatitis using contrast-enhanced CT

Twenty-eight consecutive patients with a first attack of alcohol-induced pancreatitis were studied using contrast-enhanced CT. The findings on CT were then related to the course of the disease. The patients with acute hemorrhagic-necrotizing pancreatitis showed significantly lower enhancement values of the pancreatic parenchyma than those with milder forms of the disease.The next 20 patients with severe pancreatitis were scanned using a slightly modified procedure. The enhancement values were calculated and plotted on the graphs for the 2 former groups.Two categories of pancreatic enhancement were found: low enhancement and high enhancement. In all 10 patients with low-enhancement values surgery revealed hemorrhagic-necrotizing pancreatitis. In the 10 patients with highenhancement values conservative treatment was continued, and the clinical course was nonfulminant in all of them.