Diseases Of The Pancreas, Ii: Tumors

Ultrasonography may be used as the initial screening method in patients with jaundice and upper abdominal pain and might determine that a pancreatic tumor causes the symptoms, but helical computed tomography (CT), especially multi detector-row helical CT (MDCT), with its superb spatial resolution, is considered the imaging method of choice for detecting neoplastic changes in the pancreas [1–5]. Generally, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is used in patients with suspected small pancreatic tumors and as a problem-solving modality that may help to clarify internal architecture, particularly in patients with cystic lesions when CT is equivocal [6–8]. Nevertheless, improved MR sequence design has led to higher tissue contrast and faster scanning that has resulted in more accurate detection and staging of pancreatic neoplasms, particularly of small adenocarcinomas, small islet cell tumors and cystic neoplasms [9]. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) also can detect small pancreatic tumors [10–12] and characterize pancreatic lesions, especially for patients with cystic masses [13].