Corticosteroids prevent the progression of autoimmune pancreatitis to chronic pancreatitis

Patients with autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) sometimes progress to chronic pancreatitis (CP). We evaluated the ability of corticosteroids to prevent the progression to CP. We defined patients with definitive findings of CP (stones in the main pancreatic duct [MPD] or multiple pancreatic calcifications) as having severe calcification (SC). A total of 145 AIP patients were enrolled. We measured the duration between AIP diagnosis and SC development...