Computed tomography of the normal pancreas.

The normal anatomy of the pancreas is demonstrated by computed tomography (CT) (EMI) in 50 patients with no known pancreatic disease and in 15 comparable postmortem studies. The problems of optimal demonstration of the pancreas in CT and the possible causes of misinterpretation of the pancreatic axial tomography are considered. The size of the normal pancreas was found to be up to 3.0 cm for the head, 2.5 cm for the neck and body, and 2.0 cm for the tail. In assessing these values, it is important to be sure that adjacent structures such as the portal vein, splenic vein, and duodenum are not included in the measurement, that the measurements are taken on scans of maximum resolution with no movements, and that the measurements are strictly related to the anteroposterior diameter. It is considered that gantry tilt will also distort these figures. The reasons for these statements are presented and discussed.