Natural history of pancreatic involvement in paediatric inflammatory bowel disease

BackgroundFew case reports describe the clinical features of pancreatic involvement in inflammatory bowel disease.AimTo investigate prevalence and disease course of inflammatory bowel disease children with pancreatitis and with exclusive hyperamylasemia and hyperlipasemia.MethodsWe used a web-registry to retrospectively identify paediatric inflammatory bowel disease patients with hyperamylasemia and hyperlipasemia. Participants were re-evaluated at 6 months and 1 year.ResultsFrom a total of 649 paediatric patients, we found 27 with hyperamylasemia and hyperlipasemia (4.1%). Eleven patients (1.6%) fulfilled diagnostic criteria for acute pancreatitis. Female gender was significantly associated with acute pancreatitis (p = 0.04). Twenty-five children (92.5%) had colonic disease. At 6 months 1/11 children with acute pancreatitis (9%) showed acute recurrent pancreatitis, while 1 patient (9%) had persistent hyperamylasemia and hyperlipasemia. At 12 months, 1 patient showed chronic pancreatitis (9.1%). Of the 16 children with exclusive hyperamylasemia and hyperlipasemia, 4 developed acute pancreatitis (25%), while 1 patient (6.2%) still presented exclusive hyperamylasemia and hyperlipasemia at 6 months. At 12 months, 11/16 patients (68.7%) reached a remission of pancreatic involvement, whereas 5 remaining patients (32.3%) had persistent hyperamylasemia and hyperlipasemia.ConclusionsIn inflammatory bowel disease children, acute pancreatitis is more common in colonic disease and in female gender. Pancreatic function should be monitored, considering that pancreatic damage may evolve.