Case Report
A Rare Case of Pancreatitis, Panniculitis and Polyarthritis: The P-P-P Syndrome
Dario Fabbri, Davide Campana, Donatella Santini, Riccardo Casadei, Roberto De Giorgio and Paola Tomassetti*
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, St. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, University of Bologna, Italy
- *Corresponding Author:
- Paola Tomassetti
Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences – University of Bologna
S.Orsola-Malpighi University Hospital - Via Massarenti
9 - 40138, Bologna, Italy
Tel: 390516363558
E-mail: paola.tomassetti@unibo.it
Received date: November 02, 2015 Accepted date: November 16, 2015 Published date: November 30, 2015
Citation: Fabbri D, Campana D, Santini D, Casadei R, Giorgio RD, et al. (2015) A Rare Case of Pancreatitis, Panniculitis and Polyarthritis: The P-P-P Syndrome. J Gastrointest Dig Syst 5:356. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.1000356
Copyright: © 2015 Fabbri D, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
A 70-year-old man was admitted to our Unit because of the onset of symmetric joint pain, and multiple cutaneous erythematous nodules localized to the lower extremities and gluteal region. An arthrocentesis excluded a septic arthritis and systemic and local steroid therapy resulted in a modest improvement of symptoms and cutaneous manifestations. For an acute abdominal pain with an elevation of serum amylase and lipase levels, the patient underwent an abdominal CT that showed a 55 mm roundish mass in the head of the pancreas with necrosis and colliquation, associated with dilatation of the main pancratic duct and thrombosis of the superior mesenteric vein. The pancreatic lesion was biopsied during an endoscopic ultrasonography and the histopathological examination documented a chronic obstructive pancreatitis. Taken together, the clinical manifestations shown by this case highlighted a rare condition referred to as “PPP (i.e. pancratitis, panniculitis, polyarthritis) syndrome” which links pancreatitis to extrapancreatic tissue involvement.
