Correlation of age and incidence of pancreatic exocrine nodular hyperplasia in the dog

The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of pancreatic nodular hyperplasia (NH) and its relation to age in the dog. A total of 101 dogs were enrolled. The pancreas was evaluated by histology and hyperplastic lesions were detected and scored. Age was recorded from the medical records. Correlation of age with inflammation and presence of hyperplastic lesions was evaluated. Of the 101 dogs, 81 (80.2%) had evidence of NH. Twenty-five of the 101 dogs did not have evidence of pancreatic inflammation, necrosis, and/or fibrosis, 17 (68.0%) of which had evidence of NH. Mean +/- SD age in dogs with NH was significantly higher compared with dogs without NH (9.5 +/- 3.4 years versus 3.4 +/- 3.3; P-value < 0.0001). We conclude that NH is a common pathologic lesion in dogs and shows a positive correlation with age regardless of the presence or absence of pancreatic inflammation, necrosis, or fibrosis.