There was no significant difference between the mean ages of acute pancreatitis and cholangitis pa­tients, however, they were higher than those of the healthy control individuals (p <0.05). There was also was no significant difference between cholangitis and biliary pancreatitis cases regarding the genotype and allele distribution (p >0.05).

Genotype distribution of the ACE gene in acute pancreatitis, cholangitis and healthy controls are summarized in Table 1. The ACE II genotype fre­quency was found to be higher in cholangitis and biliary pancreatitis patients when compared with the healthy control individuals (p <0.05).

In the evaluation of the patients 4 years later, 16 biliary pancreatitis patient were found to have had another bout within this period, and one case had two bouts twice within the same period. Six patients in the group with cholangitis suffered from cholangitis within this period, but none had experienced pancre­atitis during the last 4 years.

Genotype distribution of the ACE gene in acute pancreatitis, cholangitis and patients with recurrent disease are summarized in Table 2. Recurrence of in­fection occurred more frequently in the patients with the DD genotype, although it was not significant ac­cording to the first assessment (p >0.05).