Efficiency of free thyroxine in predicting severity and mortality of patients with acute pancreatitis: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggest that free thyroxine may be used as a severity indicator of patients with acute pancreatitis (AP) in emergency department, helping determine the differential care of AP. However, there are no systematic reviews and the association between free thyroxine and AP is still not completely understood. Therefore, we will undertake a systematic review of the literature to summarize previous evidence regarding this topic, in order to clarify whether free thyroxine can help us pick out the mild AP cases. METHODS: : We will search the EMBASE, Web of Knowledge, PubMed, ClinicalTrials.gov, and Cochrane Library from inception to Mar 2021 to retrieve relevant studies using the search strategy: (“free thyroxine”) AND (pancreatitis OR pancreatitides). Two authors independently judged study eligibility and extracted data. Heterogeneity will be examined by computing the Q statistic and I(2) statistic. RESULTS: : This study proved the efficiency of free thyroxine in predicting the severity of patients with AP. CONCLUSIONS: : This study will provide reliable evidence-based evidence for the clinical application of free thyroxine predicting the severity of patients with AP. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval is unnecessary as this protocol is only for systematic review and does not involve privacy data. The findings of this study will be disseminated electronically through a peer-review publication or presented at a relevant conference.