Fifteen-Year-Old Male with Type 2 Autoimmune Pancreatitis: An Argument for Endoscopy

Type 2 autoimmune pancreatitis, an increasingly recognized etiology of pancreatitis in patients less than 20 years old, has characteristically been diagnosed with the histological finding of duct-centric pancreatitis in a patient who lacks elevated serum immunoglobulin G4. We present the case of a nonobese 15-year-old male, without any chronic medical conditions, who presented with the chief complaint of abdominal pain. The laboratory study results were remarkable for a lipase level of 5,419 U/L and a γ-glutamyl transferase level of 373 U/L. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography revealed delayed contrast enhancement of the pancreas, diffuse parenchymal enlargement, and lack of normal lobulation. The patient’s serum immunoglobulin G4 level was found to be 66 mg/dL, which was within normal limits and supportive of a diagnosis of type 2 autoimmune pancreatitis. Despite the absence of intestinal complaints, the patient underwent subsequent endoscopy due to the correlation of type 2 autoimmune pancreatitis with inflammatory bowel disease that has been described in recent literature. Pan-colonic mild colitis was visualized, and the patient began treatment with steroids, to which he quickly responded. Performing endoscopy on this patient allowed for confident initiation of early therapy for both autoimmune pancreatitis and inflammatory bowel disease, and may have limited further surgical intervention and disease progression. For these reasons, this case highlights the utility of endoscopy in pediatric patients with suspected type 2 autoimmune pancreatitis, even in the absence of intestinal symptoms.