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Diagnosis and Staging of Chronic Pancreatitis

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Standards in Pancreatic Surgery

Abstract

Improvement of imaging techniques to visualize the pancreas, and the development of non-invasive pancreatic function tests have facilitated and greatly improved the diagnostic approach to chronic pancreatitis (CP) in clinical routine. However, the limited sensitivity of diagnostic procedures and difficulty in obtaining pancreatic tissue specimens hinder detection in early stages of CP. Diagnosis of CP is based on clinical history, pathognomonic changes of pancreatic structure assessed by ultrasonography (US), computed tomography (CT) and/or endoscopic retrograde pancreatography (ERP), and impaired exocrine and/or endocrine pancreatic function. Staging of CP is based on the degree of morphological and functional changes. This article updates the current knowledge of clinical, morphological, and functional aspects of CP that allow diagnosis and staging.

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Malfertheiner, P., Domínguez-Muñoz, J.E., Büchler, M. (1993). Diagnosis and Staging of Chronic Pancreatitis. In: Beger, H.G., Büchler, M., Malfertheiner, P. (eds) Standards in Pancreatic Surgery. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77437-9_34

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77437-9_34

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

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