The current attitude in the diagnosis of the chronic pancreatitis

Abstract

Introduction: The diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis (CP) remains an actual problem of modern medicine, the cause being the incomplete elucidation of the etiopathogenetical link, requiring a wide variety of clinical, laboratory and imaging investigations. Purpose: Evaluation of the specifics and sensitivity of CP diagnosis methods.Material and methods: A retrospective study was performed on the diagnosis methods applied to 80 CP diagnosed patients, held during 2016-2020 at the Surgical Clinic No.2. Results: The diagnosis of CP was established based on the results of clinical, biochemical examinations, imaging investigations (USG [fig.1], including intraoperative USG) FEGDS, barium radiography of the stomach and duodenum [fig.2], CT (standard and angiographic regimens) [fig.3,], ERCP [fig.4, fig.5], MRI (standard and cholangiographic regimens) [fig.6], intraoperative pancreatography. Diagnosis sensitivity: CT-97,0%, MRI in standard and cholangiographic regimens – 96,0%, preoperative USG - 80.5%, intraoperative USG - 91.5%, ERCP – 87,0%. Conclusions: The diagnosis of CP includes a wide range of clinical, laboratory, imaging investigations which provide truthful information about the degree of damage to the pancreas, the severity of morphological changes in the pancreas and allows the application of an appropriate curative treatment.