Idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (ICP) patients admitted to the investigator's center from January 2000 to December 2013 were enrolled. Characteristics were compared between early-onset idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (EOICP) and late-onset idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (LOICP) patients. Cumulative rates of diabetes mellitus, steatorrhea, pancreatic stone, pancreatic pseudocyst (PPC), biliary stricture, and pancreatic cancer after the onset and the diagnosis of ICP were calculated, respectively. Different cut-off values for age at onset of ICP were set to classify EOICP and LOICP. Then differences of clinical courses between EOICP and LOICP were compared when classified by distinct cut-off values.
Classification of early-onset idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (EOICP) and late-onset idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (LOICP) was proposed based on bimodal distribution of age at onset of idiopathic chronic pancreatitis (ICP). However, studies of larger populations prove it may be normal distribution. Therefore, the aim of the study is to find what the distribution of age at onset of ICP is and whether the classification of EOICP and LOICP is meaningful.