Phospholipase D2: A biomarker for stratifying disease severity in acute pancreatitis?

Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages of biomarkers for diagnosing acute pancreatitis

Marker	Sensitivity[7,24]	Specificity[7,24]	Validation stage[7,24]	Advantages	Disadvantages
IL	93.1%-100%	89.7%-96.8%	Clinical application	IL-6 accurately predicts severity in AP[8,9]	Constrained by cost and assay complexity[10]
CRP	80%-86%	61%-84%	Widely used	Predicting AP severity with low cost and easy availability[13,14]	Lack of specificity[5]; Delayed detection[14]
TNF-α	Inconsistent	Inconsistent	Research stage	Correlating with the severity of AP[15]	Unclear predictive value in AP[16,17]
TF	Not specified	Not specified	Research stage	High serum TF in early stages of AP[19]	Superior to CRP but inferior to IL-6[18]
PCT	73%-100%	86%-87%	Research stage	PCT predicts AP severity at an early stage[6]	The procalcitonin assay is uneconomical
Amylase	55%-84%	95%	Clinical application	An early diagnostic marker for AP[10]	Limited in determining AP severity [20]
Lipase	80%	60%	Widely used	High sensitivity and specificity[10,21]	Limited in determining severity and etiology[22]
Trypsinogen	Not specified	Not specified	Research stage	Trypsinogen can be rapidly detected in AP[23]	Low sensitivity and limited usability[21]

IL: Interleukin; AP: Acute pancreatitis; CRP: C-reactive protein; TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor-α; TF: Tissue factor; PCT: Procalcitonin.