Does neutrophil metabolic activity but not neutrophil sequestration reflect the development of pancreatitis-associated lung injury?
In this pancreatitis model of acute respiratory distress syndrome, there was nonspecific and noninjurious increase of neutrophils in the lung, attributable in part to background leukocytosis and to intravascular sequestration. However, 18FDG uptake uniquely showed that interstitial and intra-alveolar neutrophil migration and activation occurred in severe but not in mild pancreatitis, consistent with clinical correlations between acute respiratory distress syndrome and severity of underlying systemic disease. 18FDG uptake, which is also accessible by positron emission tomography scanning, better quantitates the contribution of activated neutrophils to tissue injury than other measurements of neutrophil accumulation or sequestration.
Dual therapy in TM patients with chronic HCV infection is efficacious in patients with the best virological, genetic and clinical predictors. Patients with cirrhosis have an increased risk of worsening liver or heart disease.