Abstract
The number of patients with autoimmune pancreatitis who visited hospitals in Japan in 2007 was approximately 2709 (95% confidence interval; range 2540-3040). Because IgG4-related disease is a new clinical entity, there are no data with regard to its prevalence. To estimate the number of patients with IgG4-related disease in Japan, we randomly selected hospitals using stratification and asked them how many patients they had with IgG4-related disease in 2009. The number of patients with Mikulicz's disease, IgG4-related retroperitoneal fibrosis, IgG4-related renal disease, IgG4-related pulmonary disease, and IgG4-related lymphadenopathy who visited hospitals in Japan in 2009 was approximately 4304 (95% confidence interval; range 3360-5048), 272 (95% confidence interval; range 264-306), 57 (95% confidence interval; range 47-66), 354 (95% confidence interval; range 283-424), and 203 (95% confidence interval; range 187-240), respectively. The total number of patients with IgG4-related disease without autoimmune pancreatitis in Japan was approximately 5190 (95% confidence interval; range 4141-6084). The male : female ratio was 1 : 0.77, and the average of age of disease onset was 58.8 years. The total number of patients with IgG4-related disease in Japan in 2009, including autoimmune pancreatitis, was approximately 8000.