Exocrine pancreatic function in dyspepsia.

The prevalence of pancreatic diseases as the cause for dyspepsia differs in clinical materials between 0 and 25-30%. In parallel, the incidence rate of chronic pancreatitis varies between 0.7 and 10 per 100,000 inhabitants per year. The correct figures are unsettled. The main reason for the great variability in figures for frequency of chronic pancreatitis is probably the different clinical awareness and variable practice for performing morphological and functional studies of the pancreas in patients with dyspepsia. Epidemiologic data indicate, but do not prove, an increasing frequency of chronic pancreatitis at least valid for the alcoholic chronic pancreatitis. Pancreatic function and pancreatic disease are probably connected to different gastro-intestinal diseases (duodenal ulcer, inflammatory bowel diseases, malabsorption syndromes, subtotal and total gastrectomy and to some extent in patients with hepatobiliary diseases). The prevalence of chronic pancreatitis can be calculated to around 70 per 100,000 inhabitants in the Western world. Around one-third of these present with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. The demand for enzyme substitution based on marked exocrine pancreatic insufficiency in patients with chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer and mucoviscidosis can be calculated to approximately 150 patients per 1 million inhabitants. The question concerning the analgetic effect of pancreatic enzyme substitution is still unsettled.