1. The finding of significant rising antibody titres in five patients with acute pancreatitis is good evidence of concurrent viral infection. In two of those five, evidence of biliary disease was also present. It is impossible to ascertain the relative roles of gall stones and viral infection in the onset of a particular attack of this disease in an individual patient, and double aetiological factors in a single case are not uncommon (Imrie 1974). The remaining three patients had no other aetiological factor identified after complete investigation. The finding that three of the nine patients with no putative precipitating factor had concurrent viral infection, and two of the 107 with a known aetiological factor also had evidence of viral infection suggests that a minority of cases of acute pancreatitis are caused by infection with mumps or a Coxsackie
2. The exact manner in which the viruses may attack the pancreas is as yet uncertain. Oedema of the papilla of Vater and pancreatic ducts has been suggested in the human (Ursing;virus, B.;Journal of the American MediLl Association; but from the experimental work done in rats and mice,1973
3. Pathologic findings in the pancreas of mice infected with Coxsackie virus B4;Burch, G.E.; Tsui, C.Y.; Harb, J.M.; Colcolough, H.L.;Archives of Internal Medicine,1971
4. Viral antibody studies in pancreatic disease;Capner, P.; Lendrum, R.; Jeffries, D.J.; Walker, G.;Gut,1975
5. Coxsackie B virus infection of the newborn;Fechner, R.E.; Smith, M.G.; Middelkamp, J.N.,1963