BACKGROUND:

Pancreatitis has highly variable clinical presentation and severity. Computerized tomography (CT) is the modality of choice for investigating pancreatitis. CT is not only very helpful to evaluate focal as well as diffuse lesions but also in evaluating the extent, nature of the lesion and involvement of adjacent structures can be clearly demonstrated.

PURPOSE:

The objective of our study was to study the CT findings of Pancreatitis and its associated features in a tertiary care centre.

MATERIALS & METHODS:

CT scan of 49 patients with pancreatitis were studied. All the CT scans were performed on Siemens Somatom Perspective (128 slice) machine.

RESULTS:

Majority of the patients in this study had imaging features of acute pancreatitis which comprised of 91.8 % of patients. Interstitial edematous pancreatitis (IEP) was the most common type of pancreatitis seen in 71.4 % of patients. In IEP, majority of the patients i.e. 77% had moderately severe pancreatitis and associated pseudocyst was seen in 37 % of these patients. Abdominal pain and fever were the most common complaint. Alcoholism showed strong association with pancreatitis.

CONCLUSION:

From this study we can infer that pancreatitis show characteristic findings on CT study. These imaging characteristics coupled with clinical history and laboratory finding helps us to achieve an accurate diagnosis. Imaging techniques enable us to assess, grade and stage pancreatitis with a fair degree of reliability non–invasively. It also helps in designing a management plan for better patient care.