Evaluation of contrast-enhanced dynamic spiral CT in the diagnosis of carcinoma of the head of pancreas

Objective:To study the role of contrast-enhanced dynamic spiral CT in the diagnosis of pancreatic head carcinoma.Methods:45 cases of pancreatic head carcinoma diagnosed by clinical examination,endoscopy and sonography or verified by pathology were collected in this study and CT features and techniques were retrospectively analyzed.Results:The most common features of pancreatic head cancer after enhancement included:focal low densitiy of tumor (100%),involvement of peripancreatic vessels (86.7%),mal-proportion of pancreatic head/body or head/tail (80.0%),bile duct dilation with sharp cutoff of its lower end (46.7%),double duct sign (33.3%),and lymph node or visceral metastasis (20.0%).Dual-phase scanning with arterial and portal venous phase was most valuable.Conclusion:Contrast enhanced spiral CT scanning using apparopriate technique can demonstrate characterictic CT features of pancreatic head cancer,and therefore it is valuable for diagnosis of this disease.