DIAGNOSIS OF CHRONIC-PANCREATITIS BY MEANS OF A SONOGRAPHIC SECRETIN TEST

The pancreatic duct can be demonstrated today by sonography in about 9 0% of all persons examined. In 159 persons, aged 18-79 yr, we measured sonographically the pancreatic duct diameter before and after intrave nous secretin injection. After secretin stimulation, 20 healthy contro ls and 90 patients without pancreatic disease showed a distinct pancre atic duct dilatation of 93 and 94% of basal duct diameter lasting only several minutes. No distinct secretin-induced duct enlargement was ob served in 35 of 40 patients with chronic pancreatitis. Patients with c hronic pancreatitis and circumscript duct stenosis even had a marked a nd longer-lasting duct dilatation of 156% of basal duct diameter after secretin stimulation. This study showed a high reliability of the son ographic secretin test in the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis-even i n an early stage-recording a sensitivity of 92.5%, a specificity of 93 %, and a predictive value of 84%.