[Value of echotomography in cancer of the pancreas]

We studied by ultrasound (U.S.) a diagnostic method, 87 cases with probable pancreatic cancer; 29 were confirmed surgically. We found an accurate diagnosis in 93.1% of the cases with 6.89% of false negatives and 19.54% of false positives. Likewise, 2.29% of the patients could not be explored by U.S. because they had important meteorism. Among the false positive cases the most important differential diagnosis for us was Chronic Pancreatitis. We conclude that U.S. is a certainly, high sensitive, specific, non invasive and not expensive method. Hence, for us, U.S. is one of the first diagnostic method that must be used when pancreatic neoplasm is suspected.