[An autopsy case of renal failure as its cause of death in a patient with primary hyperparathyroidism associated with chronic pancreatitis].

This paper presents a 59-year-old man who was admitted to our hospital because of abdominal pains in 1973. He had pancreatic calcification and showed high levels of serum amylase, Ca, and PTH. He was diagnosed as primary hyperparathyroidism with chronic pancreatitis. After excision of an ectopic parathyroid adenoma, serum Ca levels were decreased and normalized by dihydrotachysterol p.o. At the same time his symptoms disappeared. The exocrine and endocrine pancreatic functions, however, decreased gradually. Diabetes mellitus appeared in 1975 and he required insulin injection since 1983. In spite of the treatment, his diabetic control was poor. Seventeen years later in 1992, he showed hypertension and edema (nephrotic syndrome). Because of renal failure, he underwent hemodialysis and passed away due to myocardial infarction in 1993. Autopsy findings showed existence of diabetic nephropathy as the cause of renal failure. Clinical course of this patient suggests that severe complications occur even in pancreatic diabetes and that we have to control diabetes strictly in pancreatic diabetes as well as in primary diabetes.