CHRONIC-PANCREATITIS PREVALENCE IN LIVER-CIRRHOSIS - MORPHOLOGICAL AND FUNCTIONAL-STUDY

Ductal pancreatic changes and functional exocrine assessment have been studied, in a group of 60 cirrhotic patients, In these patients the a etiology of cirrhosis was alcoholism in 35, hepatitis B virus-hepatiti s C virus infection in 19, primary biliary cirrhosis in 2 and not dete rminable in 4, Eighteen patients (30%) showed an endoscopic retrograde pancreatography picture consistent with chronic pancreatitis (14 mild , 2 moderate and 2 severe), Mild pancreatographic changes were present in 7 alcoholic (20%) and in 7 non-alcoholic cirrhosis patients (28%), Moderate and severe abnormalities were present only in alcoholic cirr hosis (4 patients, 11.4%), No correlation was found between presence o r pancreatopathy degree and Child-Pugh score or cirrhosis duration. Fu nctional exocrine tests were abnormal only in. severe endoscopic retro grade pancreatography picture, Mild type ductal lesions can mimic eith er age-dependent changes or chronic pancreatitis, The absence of impai red functional tests makes it impossible to discriminate between these two possibilities, These findings emphasize that in our cirrhotic gro up the prevalence of chronic pancreatitis (with a moderate or severe e ndoscopic retrograde pancreatography picture) is low (6.6%) and alcoho lism is always present, Possibly, cirrhosis with secretion of high-vol ume low protein concentration juice confers a protective effect on the pancreas.