[Diagnostic relevance of computer tomography (CT) in pancreatic disease (author's transl)]

CT-x-ray examination of 98 patients yielded pathologic results in 42 patients; in 33 patients results of CT could be controlled by surgery or at autopsy. In 14 cases necrotizing pancreatitis or pancreatic pseudocysts were suspected and these cases were operated upon; only 1 case turned out to be a falsely positive diagnosis. In 15 cases pancreatic carcinoma were found at surgery; 13 of these cases had been diagnosed preoperatively by CT; the diameters of the 2 tumors not diagnosed were below 3-4 cm. Differentiation between cysts, pancreatitis and tumors was possible in 2/3 of all cases; in 1/3 of the cases differentiation was neither possible by applying morphological criteria nor by evaluating absorption spectra. It turned out to be advantageous to examine the parenchymatous organs surrounding the pancreas by CT as well; in about 12% of cases with pathological findings the processes were found to be localized extrapancreatically.