THE LOBULAR ARCHITECTURE OF THE NORMAL HUMAN PANCREAS - A COMPUTER-ASSISTED 3-DIMENSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION STUDY

Tissue specimens of the normal pancreata from three adult patients wer e subjected to serial sectioning and computer-assisted three-dimension al reconstruction of the lobules, blood vessels, pancreatic ducts, and islets, to establish the anatomical relation among these structures. Most lobules, although more or less imperfectly demarcated by septa we re found to receive a single duct (lobular duct), justifying their def inition as ''glandular lobules.'' However, there were also lobules rec eiving not only a lobular duct of their own but a small accessory duct from a neighboring lobule. On the other hand, these lobules were show n not to correspond to the territories of arterial supply, leaving no ground for defining them as ''vascular lobules.''