To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of ERCP in pancreatobiliary disease, the authors analysed the 1,244 cases of ERCP. The success rate of ERCP was 91.5%. The diagnostic accuracy of ERCP was 93.6% and complications occurred in 2.1%. Complications included pancreatitis,cholangitis and drug reactions. Among the biliary tract disease diagnosed, by ERCP, biliary tract stone was the most common finding. Compared with operative diagnosis of biliary tract stones,the sensitivity of ERCP diagnosis was 92.7% while that of sonographic diagnosis was 81.4%. The specificity of ERCP diagnosis was 94.4% while that of sonagraphic diagnosis was 80.9%. ln the diagnosis of common bile duct stones, ERCP was more accurrate than sonographic diagnosis. The results show that ERCP was a safe and effective diagnostic tool in the assessment of pancreatobiliary tract disease.
Biliary Tract ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde* ; Common Bile Duct ; Diagnosis ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography

To investigate the diagnostic accuracy of ERCP in pancreatobiliary disease, the authors analysed the 1,244 cases of ERCP. The success rate of ERCP was 91.5%. The diagnostic accuracy of ERCP was 93.6% and complications occurred in 2.1%. Complications included pancreatitis,cholangitis and drug reactions. Among the biliary tract disease diagnosed, by ERCP, biliary tract stone was the most common finding. Compared with operative diagnosis of biliary tract stones,the sensitivity of ERCP diagnosis was 92.7% while that of sonographic diagnosis was 81.4%. The specificity of ERCP diagnosis was 94.4% while that of sonagraphic diagnosis was 80.9%. ln the diagnosis of common bile duct stones, ERCP was more accurrate than sonographic diagnosis. The results show that ERCP was a safe and effective diagnostic tool in the assessment of pancreatobiliary tract disease.
Biliary Tract ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde* ; Common Bile Duct ; Diagnosis ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography

This is a retrospective case series study describing 13 patients with biliary ascariasis treated between January 1989 to January 1995 in a tertiary regional training hospital. The mean age was 35 years (15-58 years). There were 10 females. All patients belonged to the low socio-economic class. Abdominal pain localized at the epigastric and/or upper quadrant area, characterized as moderate to severe, colicky and unrelenting, was present in all patients. Vomiting occurred in 11 patients (84.6%), and abdominal tenderness in 9 patients (69.2%). Jaundice was present in six cases (46.2%). Six out of 13 cases (46.2%) had normal temperature. In 10 cases (76.9%) the leukocyte count was higher than 10.0 x 10 . Ten patients underwent ultrasonography and 7 were correctly diagnosed as biliary ascariasis. Eleven patients succesfully underwent surgery with no operative mortality. In two patients, there appeared to be migration of the worms out of the biliary tree. One patient died of septicemia before surgery was performed. (Author)

Human ; Adult ; Temperature ; Abdominal Pain ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; Jaundice ; Vomiting ; Leukocyte Count ; Biliary Tract ; Ultrasonography ; Sepsis

E.S.T. is performed not only for the treatment but also for the diagnosis of biliary tract diseases. E.S.T. serves as a diagnostic aid for some of biliary tract diseases which require such procedures as a peroral cholangioscopy or biopsy of the biliary duct for precise diagnosis and further differential diagnosis. The diseases of our patients were diagnosed by clinical findings and such diagnostic maneuvers as abdominal ultrasonography, intravenous cholangiography, percutaneous transhepatic chorangiography(P.T.C.), endoscopic retrograde chorangiopancreatography(E.R.C.P.), In all the two cases, abdominal ultrasonography revealed dilated extrahepatic duct, but biliary trees were not visualized at E.R.C.P. In one of the two cases, P.T.C. revealed a filling defect with dilated common bile ducts(CBD) but we could not make a differential diagnosis of CBD stone from CBD cancer. In another of the two cases, on which intravenous cholangiography was done, we could not see CBD. For the purpuse of precise diagnosis and further differential diagnosis, we performed EST and then ERCP thraugh widened papillae. With those procedures, CBD stones were shown.
Bile ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; Biopsy ; Cholangiography ; Cholangiopancreatography, Endoscopic Retrograde ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Humans ; Ultrasonography

Agenesis of the right lobe of the liver is an extremely rare anomaly of the liver, and few cases are reported in the literature. Most of the patients with this anomaly are accompanied by additional anormalies such as retrohepatic or suprahepatic gallbladder and other biliary tract diseases, including cholelithiasis, carcinoma of the gallbladder and portal hypertension. The diagnosis of this rare anatomical variant was established by ultrasonography and computed tomography. The radiological findings, clinical presentation, and differential diagnosis are reviewed.
Biliary Tract Diseases ; Cholelithiasis ; Diagnosis ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Gallbladder ; Humans ; Hypertension, Portal ; Liver* ; Ultrasonography

The feasibility of using computed tomography (CT) to identify the common bile duct (CBD) and comparison with ultrasonography (US) results were evaluated in normal beagle dogs and dogs without hepatobiliary and pancreatic diseases. In addition, CBD diameters were obtained from CT at the level of the porta hepatis and the duodenal papilla level in dogs with underlying diseases that may cause cholestasis. US is a useful modality in the estimation of gallbladder volume because ejection fraction and CBD diameter from US were not significantly different from those of CT. The normal biliary tract was visible on CT images in 68% of the normal dog group. CBD diameter was not over 3 mm and 3.5 mm at the porta hepatis and duodenal papilla levels, respectively in normal dogs weighing less than 15 kg. Dogs suspected to have cholestasis associated with hepatobiliary or pancreatic diseases had significantly larger CBD than that in normal dogs.
Animals ; Biliary Tract ; Cholestasis ; Common Bile Duct ; Dogs ; Gallbladder ; Pancreatic Diseases ; Ultrasonography

Since its introduction into clinical practice in the 1980s, endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has been described as a good imaging modality for the diagnosis of pancreatobiliary diseases. However, differential diagnosis of certain lesions based only on B-mode ultrasound images can be challenging. Clinical use of ultrasound contrast agents has expanded the utility of EUS from that of detection to characterization of pancreatobiliary lesions based on the enhancement features of contrast-enhanced EUS (CE-EUS). Current low mechanical index techniques for CE-EUS using second-generation contrast agents have a number of distinct advantages over conventional diagnostic modalities in evaluating pancreatobiliary lesions, including real-time assessment of perfusion pattern, availability, and the absence of exposure to radiation. This article describes the technical aspects of CE-EUS and reviews the expanding indications in pancreatobiliary diseases and further development of this technique.
Biliary Tract Diseases/diagnosis/*ultrasonography ; *Contrast Media ; Diagnosis, Differential ; Endosonography/*methods ; Humans ; Medical Illustration ; Pancreatic Diseases/diagnosis/*ultrasonography

Fourtyone patients fo gallbladder and bile duct diseases were studied clinically and sonographically.Tweentynine (Seventyone percent) patients were distributed between age fourty to fiftynine and male to femaleratio was 1:1.4. The order of frequency of biliary tract disease was cholelithiasis, acalculous cholecystitis, CBDstone and CBD cancer. Sonographic findings of cholelithiasis were strong echo with posterior shadowing, faintinternal echoes without shadowing, gallbladder wall thickneing and anechoicity of the gallbladder wall. Instead ofsmall proportion of gallbladder distension and wall anechoicity, faint internal echoes without shadowing were seenin ten of nineteen cases of cholelithiasis. On choledocholithiasis, meniscus sign at the junction of the stone andgallbladder wall was identified in most cases and was helpful to differentiation stone from malignancy. The degreeof CBD dilatation was more severe in malignancy than in CBD stones and ascaris in CBD. Sonographic examination wasuseful in detection of gallbladder and bilicary tree pathology and the cause of biliary tract obstruction could beidentified.
Acalculous Cholecystitis ; Ascaris ; Bile Duct Diseases ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; Biliary Tract ; Choledocholithiasis ; Cholelithiasis ; Dilatation ; Gallbladder ; Humans ; Male ; Pathology ; Shadowing (Histology) ; Trees ; Ultrasonography

Radiological investigation in patients with clonorchiasis is very important as this is the only method of evaluating the severity of clonorchiasis. In order to correlate the radiologic and pathologic findings of clonorchiasis, fourteen rabbits infested with Clonorchis sinensis and five control rabbits were examined radiologically by ultrasonography, computed tomography and cholangiography and the results were correlated with pathologic findings. Dilatation of the intrahepatic small bile ducts of the liver was due to obstruction by flukes: oval or elliptical small filling defects or irregular margin of the bile ducts on cholangiogram or intraluminal echoes on sonogram represented flukes per se; periductal thickening on sonogram and periductal enhancement of bile ducts on CT were due to inflammatory cell infiltration, adenomatous hyperplasia and periductal fibrosis: band like enhancement at the periphery of the liver on CT represented proliferated bile ducts, destruction of liver cells and resultant fibrosis. The study confirmed the pathological bases for the radiological findings of clonorchiasis in liver and bile ducts and will, perhaps, serve as a basis for the future radiologic-pathological correlation of clonorchiasis and in further clinical and experimental researches in the biliary tract diseases.
Bile Ducts ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; Cholangiography ; Clonorchiasis* ; Clonorchis sinensis ; Dilatation ; Fibrosis ; Humans ; Hyperplasia ; Liver ; Methods ; Rabbits* ; Trematoda ; Ultrasonography

OBJECTIVETo evaluate the usefulness of contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) in the diagnosis of biliary diseases.

METHODSCEUS was performed in 57 patients with biliary diseases. The contrast enhancement characteristics and the morphologic features were observed. The ultrasonographic results were compared with those obtained through conventional 2-D ultrasound (2D-US), color Doppler flow ultrasound (CDFI), and clinical, surgical, and laboratory findings. In some cases, the ultrasonographic results were also compared with those obtained from contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT).

RESULTSThe diagnostic accuracy of 2D-US combined with CEUS was significantly higher than that of 2D-US combined with CDFI 87.7% vs 71.9%; chi(2) = 4.41, P < 0.05). CEUS clearly showed the presence/absence of blood supply in biliary lesions and offered real-time imaging of the microcirculation perfusion in the lesions. It also offered useful information to differentiate biliary tumors from stones, bile mud, and/or blood clots. It distinctly displayed the size and contour of the lesions as well as the infiltrated range, depth, and the involved area. However, CEUS is most useful in reflecting blood perfusion patterns; it had limited value in differentiating the malignancies of polypoid lesions. The diagnostic accuracy (87.0% vs 91.3%;chi(2) = 0. 45, P > 0.05) and the size and range of the lesions displayed (0.4-6.2 cm vs 0.4-6.0 cm, P = 0.721) were not significantly different between CEUS and CECT.

CONCLUSIONCEUS is a useful tool in the routine ultrasonography of biliary diseases.

Adult ; Aged ; Aged, 80 and over ; Biliary Tract Diseases ; diagnostic imaging ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Sensitivity and Specificity ; Ultrasonography ; Young Adult