Role of cytokines and their inhibitors in acute pancreatitis.

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Role of cytokines and their inhibitors in acute pancreatitis Acute pancreatitis is a disease with considerable lethality for which there is no specific therapy beyond supportive treatment. Epidemiological data on the disease are sparse, but the incidence in Western countries is in the region of 10-20 per 10' population. - There are probably up to 10 000 cases of acute pancreatitis annually in Britain and as the mortality is approximately 8-12%, overall mortality may approach 1000. In Finland the incidence has increased by 50% between 1970 and 1989.4 Hospital discharges with the final diagnosis of pancreatitis correlate with alcohol consumption in men and with gallstone disease in women.