We submitted the revised IRB form last Friday and are now awaiting approval. We have formally decided to look at hypertriglyceridemia induced acute pancreatitis as compared to acute pancreatitis caused by another means. In the meantime, I've been asked to decide what criteria we should focus on. Because I'm a high school student I probably won't be allowed to look at actual charts but Dr. S wants me to decide and research what statistical criteria will be most pertinent to our hypothesis.
Our hypothesis is: Hospitalized patients with acute pancreatitis and hypertriglyceridemia will have similar patient characteristics (demographics, clinical signs and laboratory values) but will have worse outcomes than other hospitalized patients with acute pancreatitis from other causes. What I need to do over the next two weeks is decide and research what demographics, clinical signs and laboratory values are relevant to our hypothesis. Dr. Stain pushed me in the right direction by giving me Rand's Criteria. John H. C. Ranson, MD, "was a surgeon and director of the division of general surgery at the NYU. He helped improve the treatment of pancreatitis and developed a widely used system for predicting the outcome of pancreatic disease" (from https://www.mdcalc.com/ransons-criteria-pancreatitis-mortality/.) Basically there are certain indicators for patients with some type of pancreatic disease as to what their outcome will be. Ranson's criteria uses stats that are taken upon admission and after 48 hours to calculate chance of mortality. For example, if a patient who comes in is over 55, has white blood cell counts of over 16k, has Glucose >200 mg/dL than that is considered to be severe pancreatitis. If after 48 hours the same patient has calcium levels at greater than 8 mg/dl and also needs more than 6L of fluids within that time the patient has a 40% predicted mortality. Over the next two weeks I'll need to identify more indicators that will be used to compare patients with hypertriglyceridemia induced pancreatitis and patients with pancreatitis that is caused by something else. Once I come up with ideas on what data we should use I'll be able to use my newly acquired skills in statistical analysis to prove or disprove our hypothesis! Needless to say, I'm very excited about the task at hand!
1 Comment
Jon Calos
2/15/2017 05:56:33 pm
Nothing like a hypothesis to focus the energies! I feel like this is a big moment, and I am excited for the next steps, just like you!
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Michaela BentonI'm lucky enough to go to this amazing school that has this amazing program that lets me learn amazing things. Archives
December 2017
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