Prevalence of pancreatitis in liver diseases of various etiologies: an analysis of 107,754 adult autopsies in Japan.

The frequency of acute and chronic pancreatitis is 3.3 and 2.1%, respectively, in 107,754 adult autopsies in Japan. Acute pancreatitis is highly associated with liver diseases of various etiologies such as subacute hepatitis (16.1%), fulminant hepatitis (13.5%), biliary cirrhosis (10.5%), cholangiocarcinoma (8.6%) and postnecrotic cirrhosis (7.1%). Chronic pancreatitis is also closely related to various liver diseases. It is suggested that the portal venous stasis in liver diseases may predispose the patients to develop pancreatitis regardless of the etiology of liver diseases.