Variation in Annual Incidence of Primary Acute Pancreatitis in Nottingham, 1969-74

Hospital admission for acute pancreatitis in an English population, 1963-98: database study of incidence and mortality

“…Our unstandardised incidence rates of 4.6 per 100 000 in 1963-74, 7.7/100 000 in 1975-86, and 10.2/100 000 in 1987-98 are comparable to those reported in earlier English studies 2 10 16 17. Reported rates have tended to be higher in Scotland,5 18 the United States,1 19 Germany,20 and the Scandinavian countries8 21 22 than in England, although rates in the Netherlands6 23 have been more comparable.…”

Pancreatitis--a retrospective study.

“…However, both these criteria may be shared by other acute abdominal emergencies such as perforated duodenal ulcer and intestinal obstruction, while patients with biliary calculi and acute cholecystitis often have increased serum amylase levels, which may reflect the functional and developmental inter-relationships of the biliary and exocrine pancreatic systems rather than the presence of acute pancreatitis. To overcome these difficulties, and to make the diagnosis of acute pancreatitis as objective as possible, several authors have urged that the diagnosis should be accepted only if the serum amylase on admission exceeds 1000 Somogyi U/dl (Trapnell, 1966), or 1200 IU/l (Imrie and Whyte, 1975), or is three to five times higher than the upper limit of the normal range (Wyatt, 1974;Bourke, 1975). Patients with lower values of serum amylase are thus automatically excluded from therapeutic trials.…”

Acute pancreatitis and the influence of socioeconomic deprivation

“…In one single-centre study, a trend towards a higher incidence of AP was identified in lower socioeconomic areas, although this was not significant 20,21 . In addition, a high representation of patients from deprived socioeconomic backgrounds was found in a small singlecentre study of alcohol-induced AP in the North of England 22 .…”