An unusual case of jaundice in secondary diabetes

A 66-year-old insulin-requiring diabetic male with diabetes secondary to pancreatic damage from alcohol abuse, with well-established alcoholic liver disease and cirrhosis, developed obstructive jaundice from gall stones and later from a biliary stricture associated with gram-negative septicaemia. Death occurred from a haemorrhagic cholecystitis with ruptured gall bladder. At autopsy, a surprise finding was a non-functioning pancreatic islet cell tumour invading the ampulla of Vater. Cholestasis in this case was due to multiple factors. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.