Clinical features of chronic pancreatitis in children: a single-center retrospective study / 中华儿科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective@#To analyze the clinical characteristics of chronic pancreatitis (CP) and evaluate its impact on growth of children.@*Methods@#A retrospective study was conducted in 94 children (male 49 cases, female 45 cases) who were diagnosed with CP in the Department of Pediatrics, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from August 2008 to July 2015. Clinical characteristics, such as features of abdominal pain, etiologies, image data, levels of serum amylase and lipase, and physical development data were extracted from electronic medical records. The comparison between groups based on etiology or with normal control was performed with student′s t test.@*Results@#The age of first episode was (8.2±3.7) years. There were 61 (65%) children diagnosed with idiopathic CP, and 25 (27%) with anatomic abnormalities. The age of onset in the group with anatomic abnormalities was lower than that in the idiopathic CP group ((6.3±3.5) vs. (8.9±3.4) years, t=3.211, P=0.002). There were 51 (54%) patients with serum amylase elevation, 41(44%) patients with lipase elevation, and 35 (37%) with elevation in both. The questionnaire showed that 28 out of 30 children had moderate to severe abdominal pain. The patients′ weight standard score (SDS) was significantly lower than the overall average in normal control (-0.4±1.1 vs. 0, t=-3.308, P=0.001). Meanwhile, the mean level of insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) SDS of 35 children was significantly decreased (-1.8±1.8 vs. 0, t=-6.136, P<0.01). There were 69% (37/54) patients diagnosed by magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) combined with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), higher than that diagnosed by abdominal ultrasound (29%, 27/94).@*Conclusions@#Idiopathic CP and anatomic abnormalities were the two main etiologies. Normal level of serum amylase and lipase or negative finding of ultrasound cannot exclude CP, while MRCP and MRI should be considered to improve CP diagnostic rate. It is noteworthy that growth delay would happen in children with CP history.