Maintenance therapy in autoimmune pancreatitis: a weak light into the darkness

Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is a fibro-inflammatory disease of the pancreas with a postulated immune-mediated mechanism (1,2). Two different histologic subtypes have been described, type 1 and type 2 AIP (3). Type 1 AIP is a more aggressive disease in terms of recurrences and extra-pancreatic organ involvement. International consensus diagnostic criteria (ICDC) have been established to classify the disease without definitive histology (4). ICDC introduced not otherwise specified (NOS) AIP as a third subtype, if type 1 or type 2 AIP cannot be diagnosed.