New Concepts in Diagnosis and Therapy of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma by Andrea Laghi

Author:Andrea Laghi
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg

In the majority of patients the initial diagnostic steps are triggered by unspecific signs and symptoms like jaundice, abdominal pain, anorexia, and weight loss. Thorough clinical examination is of importance offering the possibility to detect signs of metastases (e.g., ascites) and enabling a first assessment of the general performance status. Patients with a low performance status are no candidates for surgical treatment. Thus a meticulous diagnostic workup to confirm resectability and to rule out metastases can be omitted.

In most countries abdominal ultrasound (US) is the first screening technique. Abdominal US is readily available and inexpensive (Table 3). In addition, the sensitivity is high for ruling out gallstone disease with subsequent biliary obstruction and to detect even very small amounts of ascites which might be indicative for peritoneal carcinosis. Disadvantages are operator-dependency and the limited sensitivity to detect lesions in the pancreatic tail. Visualization of the pancreas is frequently hampered by bowel gas or by obesity.Table 3Costs for key imaging modalities and the Whipple procedure

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.