Tropical pancreatitis - a distinct entity, or merely a type of chronic pancreatitis?

Tropical pancreatitis was described 50 years ago as a disease of the tropical regions, particularly southern India, with young age at onset, malnutrition, rapid progression, severe pancreatic damage with multiple large ductal calculi, and absence of history of alcoholism or biliary tract disease as its hallmarks. Over the years, chronic pancreatitis in southern India has shown a change, with increase in older patients, occurrence of milder disease including milder diabetes, increasing longevity, and increasing association with alcoholism and smoking. This article looks at changes in the disease and in dietetic, environmental and socioeconomic factors over the years, in an attempt to understand the environment-gene interactions in its causation. This analysis shows that tropical pancreatitis may represent one end of the wide spectrum of chronic pancreatitis in the tropics, with alcoholic pancreatitis representing the other extreme.