Correction: Mutations of the Cystic Fibrosis Gene in Patients with Chronic Pancreatitis

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Abstract
In their article on mutations of the cystic fibrosis gene in patients with chronic pancreatitis, Sharer et al. (Sept. 3 issue)1 concluded that the frequency of carriers of the 5T allele was significantly higher in these patients than in the general population. However, we believe that this conclusion may be incorrect. The authors did not use for comparison the control group of 600 unrelated partners of persons with a family history of cystic fibrosis in the northwest of England.2 Rather, they used the series studied by Kiesewetter et al.,3 which included persons from the United States, Northern Ireland, Italy, and Greece. The control group should represent the population from which the case patients were selected. Moreover, the carrier rate of 10.4 percent for the 5T allele found among 134 patients with chronic pancreatitis was compared with a 5 percent prevalence among 224 normal chromosomes (143 from the parents of patients with cystic fibrosis and 81 from the general population).3 The comparison of the carrier prevalence rate with the allele prevalence rate is inappropriate because the former is approximately two times as high, since a person has two homologous chromosomes. Thus, their conclusion that the frequency of the 5T allele among patients with chronic pancreatitis is “twice as high as expected” is incorrect. To date, there is no evidence that the 5T allele confers susceptibility to chronic pancreatitis.4