Copyright
©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Apr 14, 2016; 22(14): 3712-3724
Published online Apr 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i14.3712
Published online Apr 14, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i14.3712
Elastography for the pancreas: Current status and future perspective
Natsuko Kawada, Department of Gastroenterology, Nissay Hospital, Osaka 550-0012, Japan
Sachiko Tanaka, Osaka Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases Prevention, Osaka 550-0012, Japan
Author contributions: Kawada N analyzed literature and wrote the manuscript; Tanaka S checked and approved the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Natsuko Kawada, MD, Department of Gastroenterology, Nissay Hospital, 6-3-8 Itachibori Nishi, Osaka 550-0012, Japan. natz.kawada@gmail.com
Telephone: +81-6-65433581 Fax: +81-6-65326482
Received: December 25, 2015
Peer-review started: December 29, 2015
First decision: January 28, 2016
Revised: February 19, 2016
Accepted: March 13, 2016
Article in press: March 14, 2016
Published online: April 14, 2016
Processing time: 95 Days and 0.9 Hours
Peer-review started: December 29, 2015
First decision: January 28, 2016
Revised: February 19, 2016
Accepted: March 13, 2016
Article in press: March 14, 2016
Published online: April 14, 2016
Processing time: 95 Days and 0.9 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Elastography for the pancreas had been considered to be difficult to perform with adequate accuracy and reproducibility because the pancreas is a small organ located deep in center of the human body. This review introduces the recent innovation of elastography for the pancreas, and makes recommendations on how to use various elastographic modalities for the pancreas. The review also shows us what we can know by performing elastography for the pancreas. Elastography may be a promising imaging modality for differential diagnosis between malignant and benign pancreatic tumors, for early diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis, and for identifying high-risk patients for pancreatic cancer.