MONTREAL – Once children have a first bout of acute pancreatitis, a second, separate episode of acute pancreatitis most often occurs in patients with genetically triggered pancreatitis, those who are taller or weigh more than average, and patients with pancreatic necrosis, based on multicenter, prospective data collected from 83 patients.
This is the first reported study to prospectively follow pediatric cases of acute pancreatitis, and additional studies with more patients are needed to better identify the factors predisposing patients to recurrent episodes of acute pancreatitis and to quantify the amount of risk these factors pose, Katherine F. Sweeny, MD, said at the annual meeting of the Federation of the International Societies of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.
Mitchel L. Zoler/Frontline Medical News
Dr. Katherine F. Sweeny
The analysis focused on the 83 patients with at least 3 months of follow-up. During observation, 17 (20%) of the patients developed a second episode of acute pancreatitis that was distinguished from the initial episode by either at least 1 pain-free month or by complete normalization of amylase and lipase levels between the two episodes. Thirteen of the 17 recurrences occurred within 5 months of the first episode, with 11 of these occurring within the first 3 months after the first attack, a subgroup Dr. Sweeny called the “rapid progressors.”
Comparison of the 11 rapid progressors with the other 72 patients showed that the rapid progressors were significantly taller and weighed more. In addition, two of the 11 rapid progressors had pancreatic necrosis while none of the other patients had this complication.
The pancreatitis etiologies of the 11 rapid progressors also highlighted the potent influence a mutation can have on producing recurrent acute pancreatitis. Four of the 11 rapid progressors had a genetic mutation linked to pancreatitis susceptibility, and five of the six patients with a genetic cause for their index episode of pancreatitis developed a second acute episode during follow-up, said Dr. Sweeny, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. In contrast, the next most effective cause of recurrent pancreatitis was a toxin or drug, which resulted in about a 25% incidence rate of a second episode. All of the other pancreatitis etiologies had recurrence rates of 10% or less.
Collecting better information on the causes of recurrent pancreatitis and chronic pancreatitis is especially important because of the rising incidence of acute pediatric pancreatitis, currently about one case in every 10,000 children and adolescents. Prior to formation of the INSPPIRE consortium, studies of pediatric pancreatitis had largely been limited to single-center retrospective reviews. The limitations of these data have made it hard to predict which patients with a first episode of acute pancreatitis will progress to a second episode or beyond, Dr. Sweeny said.
Dr. Sweeny had no disclosures.
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