Radiological-histological correlation of arterial changes in pancreatic carcinoma and chronic pancreatitis.

This study was intended to elucidate, on a histological basis, the origin of the angiographic abnormalities seen in three pancreatic carcinoma cases and three chronic pancreatitis cases. Irregular encasement and/or occlusion of the extrapancreatic large arteries were revealed to have resulted from serrated deformity and contraction of the arterial wall, which was surrounded by fibrosis and invasive carcinoma cells. Both of these changes in combination were characteristic in carcinoma cases, but the arterial walls never succumbed to tumor invasion. Arterial occlusions due to intimal thickening in the small arteries were morphologically similar in cases of carcinoma and chronic pancreatitis.