Mo1172 Effect of Long-Term Alcohol Intake on Pancreatic Fat Content in Humans -Characteristics of Alcohol-Induced Pancreatic Steatosis

Abstract

Background: Long-term alcohol intake has always been regarded as one of the major causes of chronic pancreatitis (CP). However, 5%-10% of chronic alcoholics ever develop CP. And no successful animal model of CP could be induced by alcohol alone. Our previous study and other accumulating animal studies showed that long-term alcohol administration led to pancreatic steatosis. Unfortunately, it is still unclear whether there is alcohol-induced pancreatic steatosis in humans and how to make a diagnosis of it. At present, chemical shift magnetic resonance imaging, a reliable, noninvasive, and quantitative method, is found useful for identifying pancreatic steatosis in the clinical practice by determining tissue fat content in vivo. Objective: to find out the characteristics of alcohol-induced pancreatic steatosis in humans so as to help make the diagnosis of it. Methods: 137 healthy male volunteers and 131 alcoholics aged 20~70 years with a normal body mass index were recruited into this study. The healthy volunteers were included as the normal control without any digestive system symptom or a long history of drinking. The alcoholics were defined as the drinkers with an alcohol intake of > 80 g / day, a duration of >5 years, and abstinence from alcohol within 2 years. All of them received magnetic resonance scanning in the epigastric region by using double-echo chemical shift magnetic resonance technique. Their pancreatic fat content was determined. Results: In each age group, pancreatic fat content of alcoholics was about twice as that of healthy control, p 0.05). CV among the three regions did not show any difference between alcoholics younger than 40 years and their corresponding healthy controls. In the age groups older than 40 years, CV of pancreatic fat fraction of alcoholics significantly increased compared with their corresponding control by approximately 45%, p 80 g ethanol /day, duration >5 years) including the abstainers, 2) pancreatic fat content higher than 4.2%, 8.0% in alcoholics younger and older than 50 years, respectively, 3)unevenly distributed fat in the pancreas of the drinkers older than 40 years. Those characteristics may help us to make a diagnostic criteria of the disease.