Radiology, Vol 144, 591-595, Copyright © 1982 by Radiological Society of North America
Biliary scintigraphy in acute pancreatitis
AN Serafini, W Al-Sheikh, JS Barkin, M Hourani, G Sfakiankis, LP Clarke and FS Ashkar
A prospective study was carried out in 60 patients to determine the
efficacy of 99mTc-PIPIDA scintigraphy in differentiating biliary
pancreatitis from nonbiliary pancreatitis. Forty patients were classified
as having biliary pancreatitis and 20 patients as having the nonbiliary
type. Scintigraphic scans were divided into five main types according to
the time to visualization of the gallbladder and the time to excretion of
99mTc-PIPIDA into the intestinal tract. Normal scans were obtained on 95%
of patients (19/20) with nonbiliary pancreatitis; 22.5% of patients (9/40)
with biliary pancreatitis had normal scans. It is concluded that elevated
amylase levels together with an abnormal biliary scan, as defined by the
criteria presented here, indicate biliary pancreatitis, while a normal scan
largely excludes such diagnosis.
