Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Aug 16, 2022; 10(23): 8232-8241
Published online Aug 16, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i23.8232
Spontaneous remission of autoimmune pancreatitis: Four case reports
Bin-Bin Zhang, Jian-Wei Huo, Zheng-Han Yang, Zhen-Chang Wang, Er-Hu Jin
Bin-Bin Zhang, Zheng-Han Yang, Zhen-Chang Wang, Er-Hu Jin, Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, China
Bin-Bin Zhang, Jian-Wei Huo, Department of Radiology, Beijing Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100010, China
Author contributions: Zhang BB and Jin EH conceived the idea of the study; Zhang BB and Huo JW collected and analysed the data; Yang ZH and Wang ZC interpreted the results; Zhang BB wrote the paper; all authors discussed the results and revised the manuscript.
Informed consent statement: All study participants provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Er-Hu Jin, Doctor, Chief Doctor, Department of Radiology, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, No. 95 Yong-An Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China. drerhujin@163.com
Received: November 10, 2021
Peer-review started: November 10, 2021
First decision: December 2, 2021
Revised: December 13, 2021
Accepted: July 11, 2022
Article in press: July 11, 2022
Published online: August 16, 2022
Processing time: 264 Days and 0.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: We focus on spontaneous remission (SR) in patients with autoimmune pancreatitis due to the high risks and contraindications of steroid treatment. As with asymptomatic patients, some symptomatic patients may also have SR. Patients with localized or diffuse enlargement of the pancreas (the former may be more prone to SR), with or without involvement of the bile ducts, may have SR. After SR, the affected pancreases may return to normal, or exhibit progressive fibrosis and atrophy as well as calcification.