Background: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) has been described as a multifactorial, ongoing inflammatory condition of the pancreas varying intensity that produces persistent pain, leading to exocrine and endocrine insufficiency decreased lifespan. Currently, there are three primary forms chronic pancreatitis: autoimmune (steroid-sensitive pancreatitis), obstructive pancreatitis, calcific latter being...

Acute pancreatitis is a relatively common disease that affects about 300,000 patients per annum in America with a mortality of about 7%. About 75% of pancreatitis is caused by gallstones or alcohol. Other important causes include hypertriglyceridemia, medication toxicity, trauma from endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, hypercalcemia, abdominal trauma, various infections, autoimmune,...

Immunoglobulin G4 (IgG4)-related disease is a systemic inflammatory disorder that was first described in patients with autoimmune pancreatitis. Although IgG4-related disease is thought to involve the cardiovascular system, case reports describing coronary artery involvement are relatively rare. We describe a patient who was previously diagnosed with autoimmune pancreatitis and found to have cor...

Autoimmune chronic pancreatitis is a disease characterized by diffuse swelling of the pancreas, irregular narrowing of the main pancreatic duct and elevated levels of serum IgG, and lymphoplasmacytic infiltration is observed on histologic examination. Steroid therapy can dramatically reverse the clinical symptoms and the histologic and radiologic findings. It is known that recurrence is very ra...

The endoscopic diagnosis of autoimmune pancreatitis from histologic criteria remains challenging as it requires adequate architectural details rather than cytology alone. A 67-year-old man presented with progressive abdominal pain and weight loss. Cross-sectional imaging showed inflammatory changes of the pancreatic body and tail and periaortitis on abdominal computed tomography, but normal ser...

We report the case of a 37-year-old woman who had a relapse of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) during treatment for chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. She was originally suspected of having autoimmune pancreatitis. Relapse of AML often occurs at extramedullary sites. Whereas the pancreas is rare as an organ of AML relapse, physicians should be a...

CONTEXT Autoimmune pancreatitis is sometimes associated with other autoimmune diseases. We have presented two cases of autoimmune pancreatitis with retroperitoneal fibrosis and compared our findings with those found in the literature. CASE 1: A 71-year-old male developed anorexia and weight loss. Abdominal ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) showed diffuse swelling of the pancreas...

We have recently identified the zinc finger and SCAN domain containing 4 (Zscan4), which is transiently expressed and regulates telomere elongation and genome stability in mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. The aim of this study was to examine the expression of ZSCAN4 in the adult pancreas and elucidate the role of ZSCAN4 in tissue inflammation and subsequent regeneration. The expression of ZSCAN...

We report 3 children who presented with fever and abdominal pain, deranged liver function tests, and on abdominal ultrasound were found to have an enlarged pancreas, substantial abdominal lymphadenopathy, and extrahepatic biliary duct dilatation. After ruling out malignancy, probable immunoglobulin G4-related disease (IgG4RD) associated with autoimmune pancreatitis was considered. This conditio...

We report a case of autoimmune pancreatitis in a 31-year-old man with signs and symptoms of biliary tract obstruction. Evaluation with sonography, computed tomography, and ultimately endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, demonstrated a 5 by 2 cm hypoechoic, hypodense mass near the head of the pancreas that extended into the porta hepatis. Common bile duct obstruction with proximal dil...