BACKGROUND: @entity167 is the most common cause of acute @entity788 in Finland (70%). The amount of @entity167 consumed has been shown to be associated with the prevalence of @entity788 in the country, and also to be an important determinant of the severity of the first episode of @entity8883 . We have a clinical suspicion that the use of @entity167 and the incidence of @entity788 are increased during holiday periods in summer, although no seasonal variations have been reported in a German population. METHODS: Between 1972 and 1992 a total of 1556 episodes with @entity8883 were treated at Tampere University Hospital; 552 were first episodes and 1004 were recurrent. For comparison, we investigated 297 episodes of @entity656 treated in that same time period. We investigated the monthly prevalence of acute alcoholic (first and recurrent) @entity788 and compared this with the monthly absolute @entity167 consumption. RESULTS: Taking all alcoholic @entity788 episodes into account, significant differences can be seen between prevalence and month of onset of the disease (P < 0.0001), whereas among @entity788 episodes there were no differences (P = 0.3). Prevalence of @entity8883 was significantly higher than the expected prevalence in July and August, and the amount of @entity167 consumption (100% @entity167 , litres) was highest during these same months. Also during March, October and December the prevalence was higher than expected. CONCLUSION: Months with holiday seasons, Christmas, Easter, summer and autumn, are associated with the highest @entity167 consumption and the highest prevalence of @entity8883 .

Alcoholic, but not biliary, XXXX varies seasonally in occurrence.

@entity167 :: ('CHEBI:16236', 'Chemical') :: ['alcohol', 'Alcohol'] @entity788 :: ('MESH:D010190', 'Disease') :: ['biliary pancreatitis', 'pancreatitis'] @entity8883 :: ('MESH:D019512', 'Disease') :: ['acute alcoholic pancreatitis'] @entity656 :: ('MESH:D019283', 'Disease') :: ['acute biliary pancreatitis']
@entity788 :: (MESH:D010190,Disease) :: ['pancreatitis']
