Acute pancreatitis is a condition that when regarded purely from the level of seriousness is next only to the pancreatic cancer. Or, for that matter any other cancer. As the name itself suggests, acute pancreatitis is often accompanied by what else, acute pain in the stomach.

The pancreas itself is a deceptively small and at the same time very fragile organ locating which itself proves to be a big enough task for even the highly qualified and experienced medical personnel who toil away in this particular specialty under the broad area that we know as medical science. Those who work in the field of pancreatology are referred to by the name of pancreatologists.

Causes and symptoms of acute pancreatitis
While it is very much true that acute pancreatitis is a condition that can occur to any one of any age or sex, it is found to be more prevalent in the case of men. This is because of the fact that men are prone to fall prey to lifestyles such as taking to alcoholism, or smoking tobacco, etc. As a consequence of this reality, genetics also proves to be a factor.

Like say an alcoholic father passing on the ailment that is often life threatening to his son, who himself may not be consuming alcohol. The statistics that are available is alarming to say the least. For instance, in the United States alone, no less than 70 per cent of the cases of acute pancreatitis are found to be caused because of alcohol abuse only. Passive smoking, shockingly enough, is proved to be the cause of rise of pancreatitis in children. It is found that any child who is exposed to passive smoking lasting more than four minutes is prone to having some kind of damage done his or her pancreatic function. This, in itself is pretty serious a situation to be in.

The other major symptoms of acute pancreatitis are that this dreaded disease occurs when the immune system of the body collapses. The high blood levels of the triglycerides fat. Or, when the pancreas is injured due to an accident is yet another cause of acute pancreatitis. These are the known factors that often lead to one or the other disorder of the pancreas.

Tests for detecting acute pancreatitis
Like in the case of so many other diseases, there are certain tests and procedures to detect and later accordingly start suitable medication for acute pancreatitis too. Though, all said and done, it is very difficult to provide a full proof medical solution to acute pancreatitis. The tests include – complete blood count test, comprehensive metabolic tests, and tests to detect increased blood amylase level, increased urine amylase level, serum blood lipase level, etc.