Obesity and Treatment of Diabetes With Glyburide May Both Be Risk Factors for Acute Pancreatitis
- Kerstin B. Blomgren, RN1,
- Anders Sundström, BA2,
- Gunnar Steineck, MD, PHD3 and
- Bengt E. Wiholm, MD, PHD, FRCP(L)24
- 1Pharmacoepidemiological Unit, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
- 2Medical Product Agency, Uppsala, Sweden
- 3Clinical Cancerepidemiology, Stockholm City Council and Department of Oncology and Pathology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
- 4Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Abstract
OBJECTIVE—To evaluate risk factors, notably drugs, for acute pancreatitis.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—A population-based case-control study was conducted of 1.4 million inhabitants, aged 20–85 years, of four regions in Sweden between 1 January 1995 and 31 May 1998. A total of 462 case subjects were hospitalized in surgery departments for their first episode of acute pancreatitis without previous gallbladder disease. A total of 1,781 control subjects were randomly selected from a population register. Information was obtained from case records and through telephone interviews.
RESULTS—A total of 27 case subjects (6%) and 55 control subjects (3%) had prevalent diabetes. A total of 53 case subjects (11%) and 130 control subjects (7%) had a BMI >30 kg/m2. Use of glyburide had a crude odds ratio (OR) of 3.2 (95% CI 1.5–5.9), and in a multivariate logistic regression adjusted for covariates, the OR for use of glyburide was 2.5 (1.1–5.9). BMI had a continuous OR of 1.2 (1.1–1.4) per 5 units of BMI. The relative risk for hospitalization longer than 14 days or treatment in an intensive care unit was 2.4 (1.1–5.4) among patients with a BMI >30 kg/m2 when compared with patients with a BMI between 20 and 25 kg/m2.
CONCLUSIONS—Use of glyburide and obesity may both be risk factors for acute pancreatitis. Obesity is associated with an extended hospitalization time in subjects with acute pancreatitis.
Footnotes
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Address correspondence and reprint requests to Kerstin Blomgren, RN, The Pharmacoepidemiological Unit, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, at Huddinge University Hospital S-141 86 Stockholm, Sweden. E-mail: kerstin.blomgren{at}mpa.se.
Received for publication 29 March 2001 and accepted in revised form 4 October 2001.
A table elsewhere in this issue shows conventional and Système International (SI) units and conversion factors for many substances.
