Pancreas imaging by computed tomography after endoscopic retrograde pancreatography.

A method using CT after endoscopic retrograde pancreatography (CT-ERP) is described for pancreatic imaging. When using an ERP technique in the canine model comparable to that used in humans, small amounts of contrast material in peripheral pancreatic radicles resulted in enhancement of the pancreas on CT scans. Nine patients were also studied by CT-ERP. In normal patients (n = 5) there was opacification of the entire pancreas on CT-ERP images. The main pancreatic duct was seen on delayed images. In cases of chronic pancreatitis (n = 2), pancreatic opacification was patchy and heterogeneous. There was no contrast-material enhancement in areas of pancreatic carcinomas (n = 2). CT-ERP showed the true extent of carcinoma better than ERP alone.