Evaluation of angiography in Zollinger-Ellison syndrome

Of 20 patients with the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome who underwent visceral angiography, only 3 had unequivocally positive studies for primary pancreatic tumors; another 5 patients had equivocal diagnoses based on adequate studies. Eight patients had no abnormalities of any kind detected by angiography (except for an obstructed splenic vein in one patient). Five patients were shown to have hypervascular liver metastases. These results contrast with most reports of findings in islet cell tumors in general and specifically with the findings in several small series of the Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.