Acute pancreatitis ranges from a mild, self- limiting disease to a life-threatening condition with multiple organ failure. Abdominal pain is the predominant symptom. Nausea and vomiting may accompany the pain. Patients frequently have a low-grade fever, tachycardia, and hypotension. The most common causes of acute pancreatitis are alcohol abuse and gallstones. The currently accepted pathogenic mechanism includes autodigestion and acute inflammation of the pancreas by the activation of proteases of the pancreas and acute inflammatory cells. Severe acute pancreatitis is defined by the presence of organ failure persisting beyond 48 hour. Organ failure that develops during the early phase is set in motion by the activation of cytokine cascades resulting in systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). Although effective therapies for acute pancreatitis are still limited, protease inhibitors have been considered to be a potential treatment to inhibit the pancreatic inflammation.
