Extrapancreatic manifestations of acute pancreatitis in African-American and Hispanic patients.
OBJECTIVE
Many studies have been published on acute pancreatitis but few, if any, on extrapancreatic manifestations (EPM) in African Americans and Hispanics. We studied the effect of EPM on mortality in these 2 ethnic groups.


METHODS
Records of 760 acute pancreatitis patients (417 African-American and 343 Hispanic), ages 19-85 years, over a 15-year period were reviewed retrospectively. Data were analyzed for EPM and mortality.


RESULTS
Of the 760 patients, alcohol use was identified as the etiology in 53% of cases and gallstones in 42%. EPM were present in 148 patients (19.5%). Gastrointestinal bleeding (22%) was the most common EPM. Patients with EPM did not differ from patients without EPM on demographics or acute pancreatitis-related variables (P > 0.05). Patients with EPM had higher odds of having comorbidity relative to patients without EPM (OR = 2.9, CI = 2.0-4.2). Of 760 patients, 109 died (14%). However, mortality was significantly higher (26%) in patients with EPM in comparison to those without EPM (11%), P = 0.001. Controlling for other variables, patients with EPM had higher odds of mortality relative to patients without EPM (OR = 2.8, CI = 1.7-4.4).


CONCLUSIONS
Mortality was high in our patients compared with the literature (5%-10%). EPM increased the mortality significantly (26%).
Akhtar
Abbasi J
AJ
Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, CA, USA. abakhtar@cdrewu.edu
Shaheen
Magda
M
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D042882:Gallstones / Q000150:complications; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000401:mortality; D019512:Pancreatitis, Alcoholic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality; D012189:Retrospective Studies