Abstract
Morphology of pancreatic ducts which were visualized by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography have been investigated in normal 554 cases. lnf luence of age on the shape of the main pancreatic duct, the position of the head and the tail of the pancreas and caliber of the main pancreatic duct were analized. Shapes of the main pancreatic duct were classified into 6 types. They were: 1) L-shaped (observed in 59.8%), 2) S-shaped (14.3%), 3) Horn shaped (10.6%), 4) Horizontal (8.5%), 5) Oblique (4.3%) and 6) Reversed L-shaped (2.5%). The case in which the main pancreatic duct was running down straightly from the papilla of Vater to the tail was not encountered in our series. The relationship between the shape of the main pancreatic duct and aging was not significant. The relations between the age and the position of the head and tail of the pancreas were following: a) High position of the head of the pancreas (the papilla of Vater lies over the level of Ll) was observed in 40.2% of the group from 20 to 30 decades (younger group), in 28.4% of the group from 40 to 50 decades (middle age group) and in 13.6% of the group more than 60 years (elderly group); b) Low position of the head of the pancreas (below L3) was observed in 7.2% of the younger group, in 10.1% of the middle age group and in 27.3% of the elderly group. High position of the tail of the pancreas (over the level of Th12) was observed frequently in the younger group. On the other hand, ptotic position of the tail of the pancreas below the level of L1 was observed mostly in the elderly group. High frequency of ptotic position of the pancreas in the aged people was statistically significant. The relation of caliber of the pancreatic duct and the age was following i) At the head of the pancreas, the mean caliber of the main pancreatic duct was 4.06mm in the younger group, 4.39mm in the middle age group and 5.04mm in the elderly group; ii) At the body, the caliber was 3.07mm in the younger group, 3.42mm in the middle age group and 3.70mm in the elderly group; iii) At the tail, the caliber was 1.84mm in the younger group, 1.95mm in the middle age group and 2.09mm in the elderly group. The differences of the means among the three groups are all significant statistically (p<0.05).
