Pancreatic exocrine and endocrine function in patients with pancreas divisum and abdominal pain

Pancreatic exocrine and endocrine function is described in 29 patients with pancreas divisum and upper abdominal pain. The diagnosis was made by endoscopic pancreatography (ERP) after cannulation of the major, as well as the accessory, papilla in all patients. At ERP, six patients had signs of marked and six patients moderate pancreatitis, whereas 17 patients were free from pancreatitis changes. Pancreatitis was found in the dorsal anlage in 12 patients (41%) of whom seven (24%) had similar alterations also in the ventral anlage. Fecal fat excretion was increased in 48% of the patients, and abnormal serum levels of pancreatic enzymes were found in more than one-third. Impaired insulin release was detected in 21% of the 28 patients examined following ingestion of oral glucose. Including an additional patient with manifest diabetes, 24% (7/29) had signs of endocrine insufficiency. The serum-insulin, serum-C-peptide and insulin/glucose pattern following an oral glucose load reflected the degree of severity of pancreatitis changes at ERP. Altogether, 66% of the patients had morphological and/or functional evidence of pancreatic affection.