EUS in the diagnosis of early-stage chronic pancreatitis.
Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a progressive inflammatory disease that is difficult to diagnose due to the paucity of a diagnostic gold standard. For almost two decades, early-stage CP has been recognised in the context of endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) when a patient presents with typical pancreatic-type pain, normal conventional imaging examinations, and subtle findings of CP by EUS. Whether these EUS findings represent true early-stage CP that will progress or whether they are false positive findings remain unclear. The key to enhancing the diagnostic precision of EUS in CP is to use objective, widely-accepted criteria that are reproducible. The Rosemont Criteria is a significant step towards achieving this goal and needs to be validated in conjunction with long-term studies of early-stage CP.
Medical College of Wisconsin, Franklin, 53132, USA. lvhernan@hotmail.com <lvhernan@hotmail.com>
Lyndon V
LV
Hernandez
Marc F
MF
Catalano
D018450:Disease Progression; D019160:Endosonography / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D010179:Pancreas / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D050500:Pancreatitis, Chronic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012720:Severity of Illness Index