Evidence supports the establishment of a national TP‐IAT program, delivered at sites with a concentration of expertise and experience
Chronic pancreatitis is probably an underestimated cause of chronic abdominal pain in children, and its true incidence remains unknown.1 Chronic inflammatory cell infiltration and fibrosis of pancreatic tissue results in exocrine and endocrine insufficiency with malabsorption and ultimately diabetes mellitus. Although obstruction, toxins and other factors can be associated, genetic mutations contribute toward childhood chronic pancreatitis in 65–75% of cases.2,3
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We thank Paul Flynn and the Hospital Research Foundation, South Australia, who enabled funding of four of five TP‐IAT procedures undertaken, along with the attendance of international experts to help with the islet isolation process. We also thank Melena Bellin (University of Minnesota), Ashley Dennison (University of Leicester), Greg Szot (University of California, San Francisco) and Appakalai Balamurugan (University of Louisville) for their contributing expertise. We also acknowledge the clinicians involved in the patients’ care during and following the procedures, including from the islet transplant and interventional radiology services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital; the gastroenterology, endocrinology and paediatric intensive care units at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide; and the islet transplantation laboratory at St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne.
Patrick Coates has received grants and funding from Kidney Transplant Diabetes Research Australia.