Background
Pentavalent antimonials are among the first-line drugs for treating visceral leishmaniasis (VL). Acute pancreatitis is a rare toxic adverse effect of therapy with antimonial compounds in adults. This study evaluated the effect of maglumine antimoniate on the pancreas in children treated for VL.
Material and Method
A prospective study was conducted on 20 children with VL who were treated with 20 mg/kg/day maglumine antimoniate until one week after defervescence. No patient had immunosuppression caused by HIV infection, renal transplantation, or drugs. Serum levels of amylase and lipase were measured at baseline and after 2, 4, 6, 9, and12 days of therapy.
Results
During therapy, all cases had normal serum levels of amylase except for one. Serum lipase levels rose to abnormal levels in five patients, two of whom had minimally (i.e. <20% above the upper limit of normal) elevated serum lipase levels at pretreatment. All the five cases had normal serum amylase levels. There were no clinical signs or symptoms of pancreatitis in the patients.
Conclusions
It may be concluded that acute pancreatitis or hyperamylasemia are not potential complications with this therapeutic regime among immunocompetent children with VL and that routine monitoring of these patients for serum amylase and lipase levels is not necessary.

Keywords: Organometallic Compounds - therapeutic use, Meglumine - therapeutic use, Leishmaniasis, Visceral - drug therapy, Child, Preschool, Child, Antiprotozoal Agents - therapeutic use, Pancreas - drug effects