Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to M Büchler.
This paper describes a case of pancreatic pseudocyst involving the mediastinum. Diagnosis was made by CT, which demonstrated the cystic nature of the lesion and its communication with an intra abdominal pseudocyst.
A prospective investigation of the diagnostic value of imaging procedures, computed tomography (CT) and endoscopic retrograde pancreatography (ERP) in comparison with the exocrine pancreatic function test, was done in 109 patients with chronic pancreatitis. The sensitivity of the secretin-ceruletide test (SC) proved to be 87% as compared with 89% for ERP and 78% for CT. The severity of morphological lesions noted in ERP and CT, shows a significant correlation to the degree of the exocrine functional impairment (p less than 0.001). 75% of patients with chronic pancreatitis had corresponding functional and ductal changes in advanced-stage disease, while only 47% of the patients with severe pancreatic insufficiency had CT changes of a corresponding degree. ERP lesions such as ductal obstruction and marked duct dilatation, and CT alterations such as atrophy and ductal dilatation, are almost always coupled with severe pancreatic insufficiency in chronic pancreatitis. Calcific lesions demonstrated by CT are also found in less advanced stages of exocrine insufficiency. Discrepancies between functional and morphological alterations were remarkable in "early" stages of the disease.
Contrast-enhanced computed tomography and (or) sonography was carried out preoperatively in 93 patients undergoing operation for the treatment of severe acute pancreatitis. 77 patients presented with necrotising pancreatitis and 16 with interstitial oedematous pancreatitis predominantly due to biliary causes. The surgical principle involved necrotomy, continuous post-operative bursal lavage or biliary sanitation and (or) pancreas drainage in the case of interstitial oedematous pancreatitis. Sensitivity of contrast-enhanced CT in necrotising pancreatitis was 85%, in localised necrosis 79%, and in extensive necrosis 89.5%. Sonography was negative in 24% of patients and in 37% of those with severe necrotising processes due to extensive masking by intestinal gas. If successful, its sensitivity was 73% only. Thus, sonography is unsuitable for the diagnosis of severe, especially necrotising, pancreatitis; it should be used for confirming the diagnosis and for monitoring the course of mild pancreatitis. Contrast-enhanced CT is indicated for suspected cases involving the necrotising form of the disease, where extensive pancreatic necrosis is registered with high reliability. Controls are advisable for cases with localised pancreatitis.
The determination of basal pancreatic serum enzymes is of little value in the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis. The organ specificity of a recently introduced immunochemical method of determining pancreatic lipase is guaranteed. The diagnostic value of the basal and stimulated serum-lipase determination by the immunochemical assay in chronic pancreatitis was investigated on 84 patients and controls. In 46 patients with chronic pancreatitis the serum increase of pancreatic lipase after secretin stimulation (1 U/kg) was significantly (P less than 0.01) higher than the pancreatic lipase increase in patients with non-pancreatic intestinal disorders and in healthy controls. Patients with chronic pancreatitis deserve to be classified in subgroups, according to the degree of the exocrine pancreatic insufficiency established by means of the secretin-ceruletide test. Of the patients with chronic pancreatitis and a slight to moderate exocrine pancreatic insufficiency 87% show an abnormal serum pancreatic-lipase increase and differ significantly (P less than 0.01) from patients with severe exocrine insufficiency who exhibit an increase of the pancreatic serum lipase only in exceptional cases. Specificity is limited, since an abnormal serum lipase increase after stimulation is found in 20% of controls.
Forty-five patients, 1-37 years following gastric resection (B II n = 34, B I n = 11) underwent an oral pancreatic function test with fluorescein dilaurate (PLT). Out of this group 11 patients suffered from a chronic pancreatitis proven by specific examination. All patients with chronic pancreatitis had pathological PLT-test results. In the B II-patients without primary pancreatic disease there were pathological PLT-test results in 69.7% and 63.6% in the B I-patients, respectively. In the resected patients malabsorption was excluded by unchanged fluorescein-excretion pattern following oral ingestion of free fluorescein. The results indicate a secondary pancreatic insufficiency following distal gastric resection. Patients with signs of malnutrition after gastric resection should undergo an indirect pancreatic function test. Substitution therapy with pancreatic enzymes is indicated following evaluation of exocrine function impairment.
Surgical specimens from 58 invasive carcinomas of the papilla of Vater were studied histomorphologically. Tubular or villous adenomas, adenomatous residues, and microadenomas were found in the vicinity of the carcinomas in 91.4 per cent of the cases; moderate or severe epithelial dysplasia in adenomatous structures or in surface and ductal epithelium was present in 81 per cent of the cases. The results of the present histomorphologic study support the hypothesis that invasive carcinomas arise from pre-existing mucosal lesions, such as adenoma or dysplasia.
Extrapancreatic pancreatic polypeptide (PP) was quantified by determination of PP-cell density using antibodies to human PP (hPP) and bovine PP (bPP) in stomach, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon of the dog. Further, these organs of 3 beagles were extracted and subjected to radioimmunoassay again using 2 different antisera (one directed against bPP, the other against hPP). Purification of these extracts were performed by Sephadex chromatography. We found bPP immunoreactive cells in stomach, small and large bowel, but hPP immunoreactive cells, besides in the pancreas, only in stomach and duodenum, thus demonstrating heterogeneity of extrapancreatic PP. Extraction and chromatography confirm the presence of PP immunoreactivity in the pancreas, stomach, small and large intestine. The observation of a postprandial rise of serum PP levels in a man with total duodenopancreatectomy suggests that the extrapancreatic PP cell may release PP.
The present case report demonstrates the history of a 50-year-old man with a mixed endocrine-neurogenous tumor of the ampulla of Vater. The tumor was localized endoscopically after an attack of melena. There were no signs of endocrinopathy. A local resection with suturing of the pancreatic duct was performed. Morphologically, there were two different tissue types (neurogenous and carcinoid-like) with numerous cells and nerve fibers reacting immunohistochemically with somatostatin and neurotensin antisera: some immunoreactivity to PP-antibodies was observed. Still, after 20 months, the patient seems to have been cured by local resection.
A duodenum-preserving resection of the head of the pancreas was carried out in 57 patients with chronic pancreatitis and a benign tumorous enlargement of the head of the pancreas. The resected tissue showed a diameter of more than 5 cm in 64% of the patients. The postoperative mortality rate was 1.8%. The postoperative hospitalization period was 19 days (median). In a follow-up period of 2.0 years (median) with a minimum of 1 month and a maximum of 10.5 years, the late mortality rate was 3.6%. Of the patients, 85.7% are completely rehabilitated occupationally. In contrast to the Whipple procedure, the duodenum-preserving resection of the head of the pancreas preserves stomach, duodenum, jejunum, and extrahepatic bile ducts in an advantageous way. The subtotal resection of the head of the pancreas decompresses the common bile duct without disturbance of the blood flow to the duodenum.
In 111 patients with necrotizing pancreatitis two different therapeutical procedures were applied since 1974 in addition to the surgical removal of necrotic tissue. In group I with 64 patients a continuous peritoneal lavage and in group II with 47 patients a local lavage of the lesser sac were performed. In case of extrapancreatic necroses and diffuse peritonitis peritoneal lavage was done additionally in 32 patients. Local lavage of the lesser sac, in some cases combined with peritoneal lavage, is the procedure significantly superior to peritoneal lavage alone.
The detection rate of pancreatic disease using the indirect pancreatic function test with orally administered substrate fluorescein dilaurate (FDL) was evaluated in 290 patients. The sensitivity of the test was 84% in chronic pancreatitis (99 patients). Results were abnormal in all 5 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer and in 3 of 19 patients tested after a single episode of acute pancreatitis. The specificity of the FDL test was 89% when healthy subjects or patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders served as controls. However, it dropped to 62% when all patients with different organic gastrointestinal disorders were considered. This decrease could be attributed to patients with subtotal gastric resection and extensive small bowel disease, who were found to have the highest of pathological FDL test results, i.e., 70 and 35%, respectively. Not restricting the oral FDL test to the detection of primary pancreatic disease, in subtotal gastrectomy and extensive small bowel disease this test provides the opportunity to detect secondary pancreatic dysfunction.
Acute necrotizing pancreatitis according to the presented results leads to definite endo- and/or exocrine functional loss in 57% of the patients (n = 21, pancreatic necrosis ascertained by laparotomy) evaluated by orale glucose tolerance test, secretin-ceruletide-test and fluorescein-dilaurate-test. Morphological alterations developed in 76% of patients, predominantly cicatricial ductal lesions shown by ERCP. The finding of a normal pancreatic function after extended necrosis in 43% of the patients can be explained by the enormous functional reserve of the pancreatic gland.
The diagnostic value of the tumour-associated antigen CA 19-9 was tested in 309 patients, 156 with malignancies (39 carcinoma of the pancreas, 117 extrapancreatic malignant tumour) and 153 patients with non-malignant disease (54 chronic pancreatitis, 25 acute pancreatitis, 74 general surgical disease). Levels above the normal range of 6-37 U/ml were obtained in 95% of patients with carcinoma of the pancreas (mean value 528 U/ml), in 31% of patients with gastric carcinoma and 16% with colorectal carcinoma (mean 8 U/ml). Results of the pre-operative determination of CA 19-9 indicated for carcinoma of the pancreas a sensitivity of 95%, a specificity of 87% and an overall accuracy of 88%. Pre-operatively elevated CA 19-9 concentrations in patients with carcinoma of the pancreas fell to normal after curative resection of the neoplasm. After palliative operation or in inoperable carcinoma CA 19-9 serum concentrations were never less than 37 U/ml.
Course of the disease and microscopic work-up of the operative specimens with special consideration of morphological carcinogenesis were analysed in 72 patients with tumour of the ampulla of Vater. Mean duration since onset of symptoms was 6.6 weeks. Cardinal symptoms were jaundice, loss of weight and abdominal pain. Endoscopic-retrograde cholangio-pancreatography, computed tomography and percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography had the highest diagnostic accuracy. Resection rate of the carcinoma was 55%, hospital mortality was 6.7% for partial duodenopancreatectomy and 15.4% for palliative surgery. The mean survival rate was 20 months after partial duodenopancreatectomy and 5 months after palliative surgery. The survival rate was significantly decreased if tumour size was above 2 cm and lymph nodes were positive for tumour. In 82.8% of the examined operative specimens moderate to high-grade epithelial dysplasias were found in carcinoma-free portions of the ampulla, and in 91.4% there were adenomatous structures. It is to be assumed that carcinoma of the ampulla develops via dysplastic epithelial changes or from adenoma of the ampulla.
During a ten years period duodenum preserving pancreatic head resection was performed in 56 patients with chronic pancreatitis and related pancreatic head tumor. Immediate lethality was 1.8%, rate of reoperation 3.6%, late lethality after an average follow-up of 24 months (minimum 1, maximum 124 months) 3.6%. At the time of follow-up 87.3% of the patients were back at work, 58% were free of abdominal symptoms, 7.4% complained about occasional to frequent abdominal pains. 72.9% gained weight postoperatively. Duodenum preserving pancreatic head resection constitutes the subtotal resection of the pancreatic head and jejunal interpostition for the parenchymal defect. The procedure is advantageous as compared to Whipple's operation in so far as stomach, duodenum and bile duct remain intact.
Ectopic gastric mucosa can be found in 40-80% of Meckel's diverticula; parietal cells producing acid are not inhibited by regulatory factors, giving rise in some cases to ulcers, which may perforate. A case report of a patient with a perforated ulcer in a Meckel's diverticulum is given. Meckel's diverticula should be removed surgically when they are diagnosed or when they are found by chance during surgery because of the risk of complications.
A quantitative correlation between computer-tomographic (CT) findings and exocrine pancreatic function following secretin-ceruletide stimulation was performed in 48 patients with chronic pancreatitis; thereby a significant correlation between the degree of morphological changes in CT and the stage of functional impairment was found (r = 0,7841, p less than 0,001). Bicarbonate secretion/h showed the strongest correlation to CT findings (r = -0,7193, p less than 0,001) within the single functional parameters. CT showed a limited sensitivity (50%) in detecting chronic pancreatitis in cases with a slight functional impairment (stage 1). Morphological signs as calcifications, pancreatic duct ectasia were constantly coupled with a severe degree of functional impairment, whereas enlargement and cysts were found throughout the different functional stages.
Case reports are given of 2 patients with benign esophageal pemphigoids , of 1 patient with chickenpox involving the esophagus, an of 1 patient with carcinoma of the cardia. Differential diagnosis of membranous lesions of the esophagus is discussed on the basis of these case reports.