The endoscopic retrograde cholangiogram and pancreatogram in chronic liver disease

The endoscopic retrograde cholangiogram and pancreatogram of 22 patients with primary biliary cirrhosis, 33 patients with other forms of chronic liver disease and 28 'normal' controls were compared. The incidence of radiological intrahepatic duct abnormality is similar in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis and in other forms of liver disease, but is present in only a minority of both groups. A 'notch' or smooth indentation on the extrahepatic bile ducts at the porta hepatis was present in 58% of patients with primary biliary cirrhosis but in none in either of the other two groups. Three out of seven patients with sclerosing cholangitis showed minimal-change pancreatitis. Pancreatic abnormalities were otherwise infrequent.