Ultrasonographic demonstration of the pancreatic duct.

During a 4-year period, 375 patients with clinically suggestive pancreatic disease were examined with gray scale ultrasound. In 14 patients, the pancreatic duct itself was demonstrated. All of these had clinical or laboratory evidence for, and radiologically or surgically proven, pancreatic duct obstruction. Etiology of the obstruction was either tumor, chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic abscess, pseudocyst, or stricture of the duct at the papilla of Vater. Two patients had Crohn's disease of the duodenum.