P910 - HYPERECHOIC PANCREAS ON ULTRASONOGRAPHY: THE EVALUATION OF ECHOGENICITY IN THE PANCREAS BY HISTOGRAM VALUES AND THE CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

P910

HYPERECHOIC PANCREAS ON ULTRASONOGRAPHY: THE EVALUATION OF ECHOGENICITY IN THE PANCREAS BY HISTOGRAM VALUES AND THE CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

T. Himoto^1,*, K. Tanabe², M. Tatsuta³, A. Tomida³, T. Maeta³

¹Department of Medical Technology, Kagawa Prefectural University of Health Sciences, ²Department of Clinical Laboratory, ³Department of Gastroenterology, KKR Takamatsu Hospital, Takamatsu, Japan

Rationale: It is well established that hyperechoic pancreas (HP), which is recognized as the accumulation in the pancreas, is frequently associated with metabolic syndrome. However, the clinical significance of HP remains uncertain.

Methods: Forty-nine patients who underwent abdominal ultrasonography were enrolled. HP was defined as a higher echogenicity of pancreas compared to that of the liver or spleen. The echogenicity of pancreas was evaluated at head, body and tail of the pancreas in each participant, using the histogram value. The histogram value in each participant was defined as the average of values in the three points.

Results: HP was present in 24 of 38 males and 4 of 11 females, respectively. The histogram values in males with HP were significantly higher than those in males without HP (44.5 ± 4.5 vs. 34.1 ± 6.7, p<0.0001). The cutoff value was set at 45.0 by the ROC analysis. The analysis resulted in moderate accuracy with the sensitivity of 1.00 and specificity of 0.79, and AUC of 0.9107, respectively. The histogram values in females with HP were completely separated from those without HP. The cutoff values was set at 39.0, and the sensitivity and specificity were both 1.00. Demographic data revealed that females with HP were significantly older than males with HP (p=0.0178). The frequencies of concurrent fatty liver or type 2DM were higher trends in males with HP than those in females with HP (91.7% vs. 50.0%, 37.5% vs. 0%). However, the rates of simultaneous dyslipidemia or hypertension were almost similar between the groups of male and female HP (41.6% vs 50.0%, 25.0% vs 50.0%). No significant difference in BMI was found between the groups.

Conclusion: These results suggest that the measurement of histogram values in the pancreas may become a useful tool for the diagnosis of HP. The pathogenesis of HP may be slightly distinct between males and females.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared