INVESTIGATIONS INTO HYPERLIPIDEMIA AND ITS POSSIBLE ...

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Drugs
As in humans, drug-induced pancreatitis has been reported mainly in the form of
case reports or case series, but a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established
for most cases. 168 Nevertheless, a history of drug administration in conjunction with
compatible findings should raise a concern for pancreatitis due to a pharmacological
substance. Based on the remarkably large number of drugs prescribed in both human and
veterinary medicine, and the fact that drug-induced pancreatitis appears to be quite rare,
most drugs implicated are thought to cause pancreatitis in an idiosyncratic fashion.
Theoretically, any drug can potentially cause pancreatitis. However, pancreatitis seems
to be more commonly associated with the use of certain drugs. Drugs believed to be
most commonly associated with pancreatitis in dogs include potassium bromide,
phenobarbital, L-asparaginase, azathioprine, and meglumine antimonate. 169-171
Endocrine disease
In 1 study, hyperadrenocorticism, hypothyroidism, and diabetes mellitus were
reported to be more commonly present in dogs with pancreatitis than in dogs with no
evidence of pancreatitis. 65 In another study, 13% of 221 dogs with diabetes mellitus were
reported to have pancreatitis. 172 However, evidence is currently far from convincing that
these endocrine diseases represent risk factors for canine pancreatitis. It has been
hypothesized that hypertriglyceridemia associated with these endocrine diseases might
be a more significant risk factor for pancreatitis in dogs than the conditions themselves.
Also, diabetes mellitus may be an effect of pancreatitis rather than a cause.