Experimental acute pancreatitis in rats receiving different diets and ethanol. Correlation between histological findings and mortality.

The correlation between histological findings and mortality was studied in rat experimental acute pancreatitis (AP) modified by different diets and chronic ethanol consumption. Male Wistar rats (n = 192) were divided into eight groups and they were fed either a mixture of water and 15% (v/v) ethanol or tap water combined with standard or special diets for 12 weeks. The animals were followed up for 24 h after induction of AP, and the lowest mortalities were observed in the groups receiving water and standard (S) or carbohydrate-rich (C) diets and the highest in the groups receiving water and protein-(P) or fat-rich (F) diets. In the groups receiving S- or F-diets and ethanol the mortality was significantly increased. The animals were relaparotomized after 24 h of follow-up time. Histological specimens were taken from the surviving rats and evaluated on an arbitrary scale. Histologically, AP was the most severe in the group receiving the C-diet and ethanol, but in this group mortality did not differ significantly from the S-diet and water receiving group. The lack of correlation between the mortality and histological findings suggests nutritional factors to be important for the survival of the animals in experimental AP. It also stresses the assessment of the severity of experimental AP to be based on the all available parameters - not only on the basis of histological findings.