Abstract

SOSA VALENCIA, Leonardo et al. La Esteatosis pancreática detectada por ecoendoscopia y su relación con el síndrome metabólico. Gen [online]. 2007, vol.61, n.1, pp.21-25. ISSN 0016-3503.

Introduction: Fatty replacement of the pancreas or pancreatic steatosis is a diffuse process that is distributed in an irregular pattern throughout the organ. This condition is nowadays more frecuently detected due to the outcome of new imaging diagnostic techniques such as endoscopic ultrasound that allow a better evaluation of the parenquima of the gland. The ethiology of pancreatic steatosis is not known, and it has been associated with a variety of diseases. It has been demonstrated that the weight and fatty infiltration have a significant influence in pancreatic ecogenicity. Obesity in the last years has become an epidemic at a world-wide level, causing at the same time an increase of pathologies associated to it and metabolic syndrome. Objectives: To make a diagnosis of pancreatic steatosis through endoscopic ultrasound and to correlate this entity with the pathological condition that conform the metabolic syndrome such as obesity, DM, and Hypertension. Materials and patients: Retrospective study with data collected from 1764 histories of patients referred to the Center of Ecoendoscpy Technological Research Center (CHALLENGE), in order to perform an upper EE, in the period between April of 2000 and June of 2004. The dynamic study of the pancreas evaluated two elements: in the first place, a comparison of the ecographic pattern of the gland was made with evaluations of normal pancreas by ecoendoscopy and second, the sonographic characteristics of the liver were used. The different patterns were described from the topographic point of view being located according to the anatomy of the pancreatic gland in: uncinate process, head, isthmus, body and tail. The sonographic patterns were evaluated separatedly according to their distribution in the gland.

Keywords : lipomatosis; pancreas; ecoendoscopy; fatty replacement of the pancreas; steatosis; metabolic syndrome.