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Diagnostic and Therapeutic Endoscopy
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 786239, 5 pages
doi:10.1155/2012/786239
Contrast-Enhanced Harmonic Endoscopic Ultrasonography in Pancreatic Diseases
1Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA
2Department of Gastroenterology, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
Received 22 August 2012; Accepted 11 October 2012
Academic Editor: Klaus Mönkemüller
Copyright © 2012 Can Xu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) is the most sensitive imaging method for diagnosis of pancreatic tumors. However, it still has limits in the differentiation between pancreatic cancers and inflammatory tumor-like masses. A novel technology, contrast-enhanced harmonic EUS (CH-EUS), has been developed recently. It can visualize both parenchymal perfusion and microvasculature in pancreas without Doppler-related artifacts. Therefore, it is superior to EUS and CT in detecting small pancreatic masses and differential diagnosis of pancreatic masses. CH-EUS could be used for adequate sampling of pancreatic tumors and may predict the pathological features of the pancreatic solid lesions but still cannot replace EUS-FNA now.