Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction

Pancreatitis is an inflammatory condition of the pancreas, which has known an increased incidence over the last years. Gallstones and alcohol abuse are the most common causes. But many risk factors are associated with pancreatitis, including Type 2 diabetes who has an estimated risk of pancreatitis at nearly three times the risk of non-diabetics. The aim of our work is to study the relationship between these two entities.

Methods

This is a retrospective study involving 14 patients with type 2 diabetics who presented with acute or chronic pancreatitis during their hospitalization in the endocrinology department of the Hedi Chaker Sfax University Hospital, during the period from 2009 to 2020.

Results

The average age of our patients was 55.8 ± 16.6 years with a slight male predominance (gender retio H/F = 1.3). Diabetes was recently discovered in 6 cases and old in the rest of cases with a median length of 5 years. The reason for hospitalization was a diabetic imbalance or an acute metabolic complication in most cases. Digestive symtoms (epigastric pain, vomiting and diarrhea) were noted in 12 cases, a severe form with signs of extracecullary dehydration was noted in one case, whereas pancreatitis was asymptomatic in one case. The assay for amylase and/or lipase was high in all cases. Abdominal CT scan revealed an aspect of acute pancreatitis in 9 cases (stage A in 3 cases, stage C in 1 case, stage D in 1 case and stage E in 4 cases) and an aspect in favor of chronic calcifying pancreatitis in 1 case. In our series a lithiasic origin was noted in 4 cases, alcoholism was noted in 6 cases and hypertriglyceridemia was noted in 3 cases. However, pancreatitis was related to hypercalcemia due to primary hyperparathyroidism in one case.

Discussion–conclusion

Type 2 diabetes is an additional risk of pancreatitis and biliary disease and can also be a major complication of chronic pancreatitis. Further studies are required to identify causal factors that may account for the observed increased risk of pancreatitis associated with diabetes.