The Role of Endoscopic Ultrasound in Chronic Pancreatitis

The chronic pancreatitis is an inflammatory disease with progressive and, in their view, irreversible morphological changes! Endoscopic ultrasound is valuable in the diagnosis in staging the disease. However, it should be noted that the endoscopic ultrasound which identifies 9 criteria, chronic pancreatitis can be associated with as few as 1, but if 6 are present, chronic pancreatitis is almost always present histologically. However, having less than 6 does not rule out pancreatitis. This document shows the sensitivity and specificity of the EUS as compared to other studies such as retrograde cholangiopancreatography and also compared to magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography. Correlations were made and discordance was found. This chapter points out the advantages and
pitfalls of EUS in the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis. Thus EUS is proving to be of a value to diagnose chronic pancreatitis and its complications. It has to be interpreted in the light of other studies of the pancreas and as pointed out by the authors, it is not yet the gold standard if indeed there is any good standard for diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis. Minimal change chronic pancreatitis is a real entity associated with pain, particularly in young women, and may be missed entirely by EUS.