Well . . . this makes me a bit worried . . .

[Guest guest]

Well, fellow travelers, here's another abstract and, again, I am

calling on someone to go to MedLine to get this one as well. The

overall theme of this one is that pancreatitis is just an indicator

of other things to come . . . at least that's what it looks like from

the abstract. I would like to get the whole thing so that I can see

what those " other things " in the continuum are.

Pancreatitis.

RM, Byrne MF, Baillie J.

Division of Gastroenterology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham,

NC 27710, USA.

In the past decade, our understanding of the genetic basis,

pathogenesis, and natural history of pancreatitis has grown

strikingly. In severe acute pancreatitis, intensive medical support

and non-surgical intervention for complications keeps patients alive;

surgical drainage (necrosectomy) is reserved for patients with

infected necrosis for whom supportive measures have failed. Enteral

feeding has largely replaced the parenteral route; controversy

remains with respect to use of prophylactic antibiotics. Although

gene therapy for chronic pancreatitis is years away, our

understanding of the roles of gene mutations in hereditary and

sporadic pancreatitis offers tantalising clues about the disorder's

pathogenesis. The division between acute and chronic pancreatitis has

always been blurred: now, genetics of the disorder suggest a

continuous range of disease rather than two separate entities. With

recognition of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia, we see that

chronic pancreatitis is a premalignant disorder in some patients.

Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography and endoscopic ultrasound

are destined to replace endoscopic retrograde

cholangiopancreatography for many diagnostic indications in

pancreatic disease.

Publication Types:

Review

PMID: 12727412 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

This is the part that kind of scares the bejeezus out of me: " we see

that chronic pancreatitis is a premalignant disorder in some patients. "

Anyse