Establishing Standards for Normal Pancreatic EUS

Establishing Standards for Normal Pancreatic EUS

There is tremendous variability in regard to provider perception of findings on EUS for chronic pancreatitis. This study performs tandem EUS exams between expert endosonogrpahers to determine the validity of minimal standard criteria.

Chronic pancreatitis is a very challenging disease to diagnose as their is no gold standard for diagnosis. Increasingly, endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) has been used as a means of diagnosing chronic pancreatitis. However, there are questions about whether intra-rater reliability and/or validity are high enough to warrant using EUS to make the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis.

The purpose of this observational study is to determine the degree of correlation between two expert endosonographers in evaluating minimal standard criteria (MST) in the same patient during the same EUS exam. Patients both with and without chronic pancreatitis will be included in the study to try and determine the validity and reliability of back-to-back EUS examinations.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Undergoing upper EUS for evaluation of the pancreas

Exclusion Criteria:

• pregnancy
• age less than 18
• inability to provide written informed consent