For the diagnosis of such a disease as acute pancreatitis, radiation research methods have recently acquired immense importance. After all, laboratory studies are not always specific and by their indicators, it is very difficult to see the entire clinical picture of the disease as a whole.
Such types of radiation diagnostics as ultrasound( abdominal ultrasound) and CT( computed tomography) allow more accurate assessment of the size and type of pancreatic damage, for more accurate diagnosis of acute forms of pancreatitis in the early stages.
Such types of research are of paramount importance for monitoring the development process and predicting the outcome of the disease. Ultrasound of acute pancreatitis is performed with the help of special equipment - stationary or portable. As a rule, in the first day of the development of the disease, the deviations of the pancreas are not too pronounced, so ultrasound and tomography are not very effective. But on the second or third day of the development of acute pancreatitis, the form of the pancreas begins to change, it increases in size and is characterized by the vagueness of the contours, then these types of examination become irreplaceable.
On the monitor of the device for ultrasound of acute pancreatitis, the inflamed pancreas of the patient looks like a diffuse formation, which has fuzzy contours and reduced echogenic characteristics.
CT is particularly good at detecting puffiness in the development of pancreatic necrosis, as a form of complication in this disease. With a sufficiently high reliability, the tomography determines the edematous form of pancreatitis in approximately 80% of cases. As necrotic lesions increase, this disease is complicated by the appearance of suppuration. As this process grows, CT can detect many new signs of the disease, such as the development of pseudo cysts in the abdominal cavity of the patient, which, if ignored, may pose an additional threat to the life and health of the patient.
At present, it is the ultrasound of acute pancreatitis and CT that is the final stage of the study, and can reliably differentiate this disease from other diseases with similar symptoms. Depending on the results of the radiation study, such as CT or ultrasound, it is possible not only to accurately diagnose the disease, but also to monitor the development of the acute form of pancreatitis in the patient, and also to correct the treatment methods in time to obtain the most effective result.