Yokoyama K. et al., 2022: The Visceral-to-subcutaneous Adipose Tissue Area Ratio is Associated with Retreatment in Chronic Pancreatitis Patients with Pancreatolithiasis after Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy.
Yokoyama K, Takamura M, Watanabe J, Nakamura A, Sato Y, Sekine A, Terai S.
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Science, Japan.
Department of Gastroenterology, JA Niigata Kouseiren Nagaoka Chuo General Hospital, Japan.
Department of Internal Medicine, Niigata Prefectural Yoshida Hospital, Japan.
Abstract
Objective Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy (ESWL) has been used to treat pancreatolithiasis in patients with chronic pancreatitis (CP), but the high recurrence rate remains challenging. We therefore evaluated the association between body composition parameters and the prediction of retreatment after ESWL. Methods This study retrospectively evaluated 42 patients with CP who had been treated with ESWL between 2008 and 2019 in a single center. Body composition parameters were measured on pretreatment computed tomography images. Patients who underwent repeat ESWL were classified as the retreatment group. Results There were 13 (31.0%) and 29 (69.0%) patients in the retreatment and non-retreatment groups, respectively. The visceral-to-subcutaneous adipose tissue area ratio (VSR) of the retreatment group was significantly lower than that of the non-retreatment group (p=0.016). When divided by the median VSR, 10 of the 20 patients with a VSR of <0.85 underwent retreatment, whereas 3 of the 22 patients with a VSR of ≥0.85 underwent retreatment (p=0.019). According to a multivariate analysis, the VSR (p=0.010) and age (p=0.037) were independent factors associated with retreatment after ESWL. Conclusion This study showed that the VSR can predict the retreatment of patients with CP after ESWL.
Intern Med. 2022 May 31. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.9038-21. Online ahead of print. PMID: 35650122. FREE ARTICLE
Comments 1
The authors documented a statistical correlation and speculated about a causal relation.
When reading this publication, I could not help but think of the statistically positive but causally irrelevant correlation between the consumption of razor blades and the suicide rate.
Peter Alken