SynthesisJournal of gastroenterology2021
The clinical efficacy of azathioprine as maintenance treatment for autoimmune pancreatitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Journal of gastroenterology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nationwide epidemiological survey of autoimmune pancreatitis in Japan in 2021.Journal of gastroenterology · 2026Article
- Steroid-resistant Relapse of Autoimmune Pancreatitis with Marked Main Pancreatic Duct Dilatation Mimicking Multifocal Pancreatic Cancer.Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2026Article
- Necrotizing pancreatitis with multifocal hepatic artery pseudoaneurysms: Diagnostic limitations and rare appearance of suspected IgG-4 related disease.Radiology case reports · 2026Article
- Management of IgG4-Related Disease.Current rheumatology reports · 2026Review
- Autoimmune Pancreatitis Re-Classification with Novel Type AIP-4.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Azathioprine for remission maintenance in anti-interferon-γ autoantibody-associated immunodeficiency syndrome- a retrospective single-center cohort study.BMC infectious diseases · 2026Observational
- Translational Pharmaco-Nutritional Approaches in the Management of Clinical Acute Pancreatitis-A Narrative Review.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Pancreatic Doppelgängers: A Case of Misdiagnosed Identity.ACG case reports journal · 2025Article
- Pharmacological Management of IgG4-Related Disease: From Traditional to Mechanism-Based Targeted Therapies.Drugs & aging · 2025Review
- IgG4-related Disease: Recent Topics on Immunological Aspects of This Disorder and Their Application in New Treatment Strategies.Internal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) · 2025Review
- Article
- Treatment approaches in autoimmune pancreatitis (Review).Biomedical reports · 2024Review
- Response: Commentary: Azathioprine as an adjuvant therapy in severe Graves' disease: a randomized controlled open-label clinical trial.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2024Article
- IgG4-related digestive diseases: diagnosis and treatment.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Review
- Autoimmune pancreatitis: A bibliometric analysis from 2002 to 2022.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- Autoimmune Pancreatitis: From Pathogenesis to Treatment.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Current status of type 1 (IgG4-related) autoimmune pancreatitis.Journal of gastroenterology · 2022Review
- Autoimmune Pancreatitis in Children: A Case Report.Case reports in gastroenterologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors at 11 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The effectiveness of azathioprine (AZA) in preventing relapse and maintaining autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) remission has been reported; however, most of these studies are case series with no randomized control trials available in the literature. Therefore, this study performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of the existing literature on this subject to determine the clinical efficacy of AZA as maintenance therapy for AIP patients. A systematic search was performed to identify studies on the clinical efficacy of AZA as maintenance therapy in AIP patients. The crude multiple relapse rate was estimated to assess the ability of AZA to control relapses in AIP. Pooled estimates were obtained using a random-effects model with the DerSimonian-Laird method. We identified AIP patients who did not respond to initial steroid treatment, experienced steroid weaning failure, or those who relapsed during remission as refractory cases. After reviewing the studies, ten articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were selected for meta-analysis. Of all 4504 patients, 3534 patients were treated with steroids, and 346 patients were treated with AZA for relapsed AIP. In this meta-analysis, 14/73 (19.2%) patients receiving AZA for refractory AIP relapsed. Meanwhile, 14/47 (29.8%) patients without AZA experienced relapse. The integrated odds ratio for relapse risk in patients receiving AZA was estimated to be 0.52 (p = 0.15). This systematic review and meta-analysis demonstrated the efficacy of AZA in preventing relapse of AIP, which supports the use of AZA as a maintenance treatment in patients with AIP who relapse upon withdrawal of steroid therapy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.