Amendment of the Japanese Consensus Guidelines for Autoimmune Pancreatitis, 2013 I. Concept and diagnosis of autoimmune pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND: In response to the proposal of the international consensus diagnostic criteria (ICDC) for autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) and the Japanese diagnostic criteria in 2011, the 2009 Japanese consensus guidelines for managing AIP required revision.

METHODS: Three committees [the professional committee for making clinical questions (CQs) and statements by Japanese specialists, the expert panelist committee for rating statements by the modified Delphi method, and the evaluating committee by moderators] were organized. Fifteen specialists for AIP extracted the specific clinical statements from 1,843 articles published between 1963 and 2012 (obtained from Pub Med and a secondary database, and developed the CQs and statements. The expert panel individually rated the clinical statements using a modified Delphi approach, in which a clinical statement receiving a median score greater than seven on a nine-point scale from the panel was regarded as valid.

RESULTS: The professional committee created 13 CQs and statements for the current concept and diagnosis of AIP, 6 for extra-pancreatic lesions, 6 for differential diagnosis, and 11 for treatment.

CONCLUSION: After evaluation by the moderators, amendments to the Japanese consensus guidelines for AIP have been proposed for 2013.