Abstract
We investigated the visualization of the pancreas in 1,575 persons who underwent an abdominal ultrasonic mass survery. The following results were obtained: (1) With respect to gender, the entire pancreas was visualized in 7.1% of males and 27.3% of females; the pancreatic head was visualized in 47.2% of males and 75.6% of females; the pancreatic body was visualized in 87.4% of males and 97.1% of females; the pancreatic tail was visualized in 8.8% of males and 32.7% of females. (2) With respect to age, the entire pancreas was visualized in 24.0% of subjects aged less than 39 years, 14.5% of those aged 40 to 49 years, 10.6% of those aged 50 to 59 years, and 3.4% of those aged above 60 years. (3) Concerning the grade of obesity, the entire pancreas was visualized in 45.1% of thin subjects, 15.3% of subjects with standard physical status, and 2.3% of obese subjects. (4) As for the examiner's experience, the entire pancreas was visualized in 31.6%, 12.5% and 70.6% of thin subjects, by examiners with 1 year, 4 years and 7 years of experience, respectively. In the subjects with standard physical status, the percentages were 8.9%, 3.3% and 30.0%, respectively. In the obese subjects, the percentages were 1.8%, 0% and 3.8%, respectively.
These results suggest that the visualization of the pancreas in an abdominal ultrasonic mass survey depends on the subject's gender, age and obesity, as well as the examiner's experience.
