Clinical Characteristics of Autoimmune Pancreatitis.
10.4166/kjg.2010.56.5.276
- Author:
Mi Jin KIM
1
;
Cho Rong OH
;
Kyu Taek LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Internal Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. happymap@skku.edu
- Publication Type:Review ; English Abstract
- Keywords:
Autoimmune pancreatitis;
Pancreatic cancer;
Cholangitis, Sclerosing;
Granulocytic epithelial lesion
- MeSH:
Autoimmune Diseases/*diagnosis/pathology/ultrasonography;
Common Bile Duct/radiography;
Fibrosis/pathology;
Humans;
Immunoglobulin G/blood;
Pancreatitis/*diagnosis/pathology/ultrasonography;
Salivary Glands/pathology
- From:The Korean Journal of Gastroenterology
2010;56(5):276-284
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
-
Abstract:
Korean autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) criteria 2007 was aimed to diagnose the wide spectrum of AIP with high sensitivity. The most crucial issue when caring for patients with suspected AIP is to differentiate AIP from pancreatic cancer. Pancreatic cancer can be distinguished from AIP by pancreatic imaging, measurement of serum IgG4 levels, endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration and trucut biopsy, and steroid trial. Autoimmune pancreatitis is a rare systemic fibroinflammatory disease which can affect not only the pancreas, but also a variety of organs such as the bile ducts, salivary glands, retroperitoneum, and lymph nodes. Organs affected by AIP have a lymphoplasmacytic infiltrate rich in IgG4-positive cells. This inflammatory process responds dramatically to oral steroid therapy. Granulocytic epithelial lesion (GEL) positive AIP patients differ from GEL negative AIP patients in clinical features such as equal gender ratio, younger mean age, no increase in serum IgG4, no association with extrapancreatic involvement, no relapse, and frequent association with inflammatory bowel disease. Further investigation is needed to clarify the pathogenic mechanisms including more definite serological markers for theses two entities.
