UTILITY OF POWER DOPPLER ENDOSCOPIC ULTRASOUND FOR THE DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS BETWEEN PANCREATIC CANCER AND PSEUDOTUMORAL CHRONIC PANCREATITIS

Purpose: Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) coupled with fine needle aspiration biopsy (EUS-FNA) are very useful for the detection of pancreatic tumors, for the differential diagnosis between benign and malignant tumors, as well as for staging and resecability. However, the accuracy of EUS and EUS-FNA for the differential diagnosis of pancreatic masses are variable in the literature, being as low as 75% in some studies. Methods and Materials: Our study included 42 consecutive patients with a clinical suspicion of pancreatic tumor mass (27 men and 15 women), examined by EUS, between january 2002 and august 2004. EUS pro…