DUCTAL MORPHOMETRY OF VENTRAL PANCREAS IN PANCREAS DIVISUM - COMPARISON BETWEEN CLINICAL AND ANATOMICAL RESULTS

Aim of the investigation is to precisely study the morphological featu res of ventral pancreas ductography in pancreas divisum, in order to i mprove the radiological interpretation and differential diagnosis of t his frequent pancreatic anomaly, The clinical part of the study was ba sed on 610 endoscopic retrograde pancreatograms, with pancreas divisum diagnosed in 14 (2.3%) cases; while the anatomical part consisted of 203 postmortem pancreatograms of human pancreas obtained at autopsy, w here pancreas divisum was found in 12 (5.9%) cases, The following duct al features of the ventral pancreas were studied: length and calibre o f the main duct, number of side branches, calibre of the common bile d uct and the biliopancreatic junction angle, No significant differences were detected between the results from the 2 groups, with the excepti on of side branches, which were more numerous in the anatomical series , probably because of higher injection pressure and consequent better opacification. These results underline the potential of the anatomical pancreatography serving as a model for studying the ductal system of pancreas divisum.