Chronic Pancreatitis In Children: Clinical Features And The Mutations Of Genes Related To Idiopathic Chronic Pancreatitis

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the clinical profile of CP in children,analysis the data on therapeutic yields of endoscopic intervention for chronic pancreatitis in42 children and to investigate whether similar gene mutations are present in Chinese childrenwith idiopathic chronic pancreatitis. Our study showed that the main etiological factor ofchronic pancreatitis in children is idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (64.3%). The pain wasregarded as mild to moderate in most of these cases and the mean duration of symptomsprior to diagnosis was long.. The positive diagnostic rates of imaging are similar to the ratesof adults. After being conducted by therapeutic ERCP successfully, 32 patients werecontacted. Complete and partial clinical improvement were achieved in 81.2% and therewere no severe complications related to the procedure. So the therapeutic ERCP can be usedas an initial management of choice in children with CP. We also found that there were 15%(3/20) patients with idiopathic chronic pancreatitis had mutation in the cationic trypsinogen(protease serine 1, PRSS1) gene and 5% (1/20) cases had mutation in the serine proteaseinhibitor Kazal 1 type (SPINK1) gene. The primary study showed that novel mutations ofthe cationic trypsinogen gene and serine protease inhibitor Kazal 1 type gene could beidentified in Chinese children with idiopathic chronic pancreatitis and these mutations wouldbe associated with ICP. But the common mutations in western countries would beuncommon in Chinese patients and the novel mutation remain to be further confirmed.