Update on Canine Chronic Pancreatitis - Diagnosis and Treatment

Update on Canine Chronic Pancreatitis – Diagnosis and Treatment

Introduction
Pancreatitis, an inflammatory condition of the pancreas can either be acute or chronic. However, acute and chronic pancreatitis cannot be differentiated based on clinical evaluation alone, but only based on histopathologic evaluation. Chronic pancreatitis is characterized by an inflammatory infiltration of the exocrine pancreas that is associated with permanent changes, mainly pancreatic fibrosis and/or pancreatic atrophy, while such changes cannot be identified in patients with acute pancreatitis. Both, acute and chronic pancreatitis are associated with inflammatory infiltration. In patients with acute pancreatitis neutrophils and macrophages often represent the predominant cell type, while the inflammation in patients with chronic pancreatitis is often lymphocytic and/ or plasmacytic. Both acute and chronic pancreatitis can also be associated with varying degrees of pancreatic necrosis and peripancreatic fat necrosis. Also, clinically, both acute and chronic pancreatitis can range from a subclinical disease to severe disease, associated with systemic and pancreatic complications. However, it should be noted that chronic pancreatitis is less often associated with clinical signs of severe disease. […]