Assessment of Computed Tomography-Defined Muscle and Adipose Tissue Features in Relation to Length of Hospital Stay and Recurrence of Hypertriglyceridemic Pancreatitis

BACKGROUND: Analytic morphometric assessment has recently been proposed to be applied to the study of acute pancreatitis (AP). However, the relationship between body composition and the outcomes of hypertriglyceridemic pancreatitis (HTGP) is still unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate body composition in relation to the length of hospital stay (LOS) and recurrence of HTGP. METHODS: Patient characteristics, admission examination data, body composition parameters, LOS, and recurrence within 1 year were collected from the institutional pancreatitis database and follow-up records. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for LOS and recurrence of HTGP. RESULTS: Of the 196 included patients, 158 (80.6%) were men and 53 (27.0%) were sarcopenic. The average LOS was 15.83±10.02 days. The recurrence rate of HTGP was 36.7%. Multivariate analysis with multiple linear regression suggested that subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) area (p=0.019) and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) (p=0.001) were independently associated with the LOS for HTGP after adjusting for age and sex. The multivariate adjusted hazard ratios for SAT area and HDL-C, with respect to the relationship between body parameters and LOS, were 1.008 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.001–1.015) and 0.090 (95% CI, 0.022–0.361), respectively. No significant differences were observed between the AP and recurrent AP (RAP) groups in terms of characteristics, admission examination data, and body composition parameters. CONCLUSION: SAT area and HDL-C are associated with LOS in patients with HTGP. The body composition of patients at the first symptom onset of HTGP cannot predict recurrence.