ALCOHOL SELECTIVELY IMPAIRS OXYGENATION OF THE PANCREAS

Background: Alcohol predisposes to acute pancreatitis by an unknown me chanism and is known to reduce regional pancreatic blood flow. Objecti ve: To investigate whether increased blood alcohol causes functional i mpairment of pancreatic microperfusion as indicated by reduced tissue oxygenation. Design: Prospective, randomized, controlled study. Settin g: University hospital laboratory. Subjects: Forty adult female Wistar rats. Interventions: Intravenous infusion of ethanol (2 g/kg) or sali ne over 60 minutes. Tissue hemoglobin oxygenation saturation and hemog lobin content were measured using reflectance spectroscopy in the panc reas, stomach, and kidney at baseline and at 10-minute intervals for 1 hour. Results: Blood ethanol levels (mean+/-SEM) peaked at 1810+/-94 mg/L. Compared with saline controls, pancreatic hemoglobin oxygen satu ration in ethanol-treated rats had significantly decreased by 40 minut es and remained depressed, while pancreatic hemoglobin content was unc hanged. The magnitude of the depression was at least as great as that previously observed in acute experimental pancreatitis of moderate sev erity. Neither hemoglobin oxygen saturation nor hemoglobin content was affected in the stomach or kidney by ethanol. Conclusion: A raised bl ood ethanol level was associated with acutely decreased hemoglobin oxy gen saturation in the pancreas but not in the stomach or kidney. This observation of provoked hypoxia provides a possible mechanism by which alcohol contributes to pancreatic injury.