Masataka Kikuyama, Tatsunori Sato, Takafumi Kurokami, Yuji Ota, Yoshihiro Yokoi
Objectives We retrospectively evaluated the results of pancreatic juice cultures of patients with acute pancreatitis and other pancreatic disorders. Methods Twenty patients who underwent pancreatic juice culture were studied. Nine had acute pancreatitis due to alcohol (n=5), idiopathic causes (n=2), drugs (n=1), or gallstones (n=1), and remaining 11 had other pancreatic disorders such as an intraductal papillary mucin-producing neoplasm (n=3) and main pancreatic duct dilatation with a stricture due to a tumorous lesion suspected of pancreatic cancer (n=7) or chronic pancreatitis (n=1) without symptoms. Nasopancreatic drainage tubes were placed for pancreatic duct drainage in acute pancreatitis and for pancreatic juice cytology in other disorders. Pancreatic juice was obtained through the drainage tube and cultured. Results Pancreatic juice cultures were positive in all patients with acute pancreatitis for Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus species, and others. Six among 11 patients (54.5%) with other disorders showed positive results for Escherichia coli, Streptococcus salivarius, and others. The rate of positive pancreatic juice cultures was significantly higher in acute pancreatitis (p=0.038). Seven of the 9 patients with acute pancreatitis were classified as having severe acute pancreatitis, and all survived treatment. Conclusions Pancreatic juice culture was highly positive in acute pancreatitis. Further study is needed to confirm the relationship between orally indigenous bacteria identified in the pancreatic juice and acute pancreatitis.
