Endosonographic Diagnosis of Chronic Pancreatitis

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is characterized by irreversible damage that engenders fibrosis and necrosis of pancreatic tissue, with the consequent loss of endocrine and exocrine function of the pancreas. The clinical course of CP engenders a high rate of morbidity and mortality over a 20-25-year period. In view of this fact, current efforts emphasize the establishment of early diagnosis to commence intervention that can positively affect the natural course of the disease. Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is a well-established and less-invasive modality for CP diagnosis. The higher imaging resolution provided by EUS enables detection of subtle pancreatic abnormalities, not only parenchymal but also ductal changes, that are undetectable using other modalities. This review presents an overview of the endosonographic diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis. *Corresponding author: Athushi Irisawa, Department of Gastroenterology, Fukushima Medical University Aizu Medical Center, 21-2, Maeda, Yazawa, Kawahigashi, Aizuwakamatsu, 969-3492, Japan, Tel: 81-0242-75-2100; E-mail: [email protected] Received May 09, 2013; Accepted May 30, 2013; Published June 01, 2013 Citation: Yamabe A, Irisawa A, Shibukawa G, Abe Y, Nikaido A, et al. (2013) Endosonographic Diagnosis of Chronic Pancreatitis. J Gastroint Dig Syst S2: 005. doi:10.4172/2161-069X.S2-005 Copyright: © 2013 Yamabe A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.