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Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is an inflammatory disease of the pancreas with unique clinical, radiographic, and histologic features. Involvement of the pancreas can be focal or diffuse, and, when focal, AIP can mimic pancreatic cancer and lead to unnecessary surgical resection. Unfortunately, the existing criteria for AIP diagnosis are controversial, and current serologic markers have not been widely embraced because of questions about their sensitivity and specificity for detecting AIP.
In an effort to identify a serologic marker that would effectively differentiate AIP and pancreatic cancer, researchers in Italy obtained serum samples from two groups of patients: A training group of 176 individuals included 20 patients with AIP, 40 with p…