Abstract:Objective To investigate the diagnostic value of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and the expressions of interleukin 6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) in acute pancreatitis (AP). Methods In this study 99 cases of AP (34 cases of severe acute pancreatitis and 65 cases of mild acute pancreatitis) and 38 healthy controls in Cangzhou Central Hospital were selected. White blood cell count (WBC), neutrophil count (NE), lymphocyte count (LYM), monocyte count (MON), and NLR were measured to understand the changes of various indexes in different grades of body mass index (BMI); simultaneously, serum levels of IL-6, CRP, PCT and amylase (AMY) in the patients with AP were detected, the ROC curves were drawn to predict the clinical value of the inflammatory indexes. Results Compared to the normal control group, the levels of NLR, NE, WBC and MON were significantly higher, but LYM was lower in the AP group (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference in NLR, NE, WBC, LYM or MON among different BMI groups (P > 0.05). The indexes of NLR, NE, WBC, LYM, MON, PCT, CRP, IL-6 and AMY in the severe acute pancreatitis (SAP) group were statistically different from those in the mild acute pancreatitis group (P < 0.05). LYM was negatively correlated with SAP (r = -0.240, P = 0.017), and the rest were positively correlated with SAP. The diagnostic efficiency of IL-6 for AP was the highest (sensitivity 70.6%, specificity 87.7%, AUC = 0.859), followed by that of PCT (sensitivity 88.2%, specificity 78.5%, AUC = 0.848). Conclusions The changes in the levels of IL-6, NLR, CRP and PCT are related to the severity of AP; PCT has the highest sensitivity, NLR has the highest specificity, while IL-6 has the greatest clinical value in predicting the severity of AP.