Focal autoimmune pancreatitis.

[Focal autoimmune pancreatitis versus pancreatic cancer: value of steroid treatment in the diagnosis].

BACKGROUND The differential diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and focal forms of autoimmune pancreatitis is complicated since serological tests, IgG4 and CA 19-9 have a low sensibility and specificity. CT scan and magnetic resonance imaging provide clear differentiation in the majority, but not in all cases. Endosonography is the most precise diagnostic procedure and allows to obtain samples for c...

MRI-MRCP findings in focal and diffuse autoimmune pancreatitis and comparison of focal type of the head and of the body-tail

Autoimmune Pancreatitis: MRI pattern including manganese enhancement

Purpose Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is a rare form of chronic pancreatitis based on an autoimmune inflammatory process (1, 2). Up to 5% of all cases of chronic pancreatitis are thought to be AIP (2). It may be focal or diffuse. Typical cross sectional imaging characteristics for AIP include enlargement of the affected parts of the gland, irregular narrowing of the main pancreatic duct and red...

Endoscopic ultrasonography findings in autoimmune pancreatitis: be aware of the ambiguous features and look for the pivotal ones.

Autoimmune pancreatitis is a form of chronic pancreatitis caused by an autoimmune process. The classical appearance of autoimmune pancreatitis in abdominal imaging is diffuse pancreatic enlargement, but the focal form appears as a mass and often involves the pancreatic head; this scenario represents a challenging diagnostic problem because these features also resemble pancreatic cancer. We pres...

Imaging of Focal Autoimmune Pancreatitis and Differentiating It from Pancreatic Cancer

Autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) is an inflammatory disorder of pancreas. Two types have been identified: the diffuse and the focal or mass forming. Clinical presentation of AIP overlaps that of pancreatic cancer (PC). Sometimes serum IgG4 and CA 19-9 levels are unable to differentiate AIP from PC. Various series have shown that 5%-21% of resected pancreatic masses for suspected malignancy turned ...

CT and MRI Findings of Autoimmune Polymorph Bifocal Pancreatitis Mimicking Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Autoimmune pancreatitis is a rare type of chronic pancreatitis. It is supposed to be a pancreatic manifestation of an immune-complex modulated systemic disorder. In contrast, pancreatic adenocarcinoma is the most frequent malignant neoplasm of the pancreas. Within the rare type of focal autoimmune pancreatitis, only few presentations with multifocal pancreatic lesions have been described. Herei...