Screening for Pancreatic Disease

THE CLINICAL FINDINGS of chronic pan-creatitis or pancreatic neoplasm may be so mild or atypical that the diagnosis is not suspected, diagnostic studies not re-quested, or hospitalization not indicated. Thus, many cases may long go unrecog-nized or may be diagnosed as functional. Many workers have demonstrated that the diagnosis of chronic pancreatic disease can be improved with the use of elaborate studies (1-17), especially duodenal drainage with chemical (6-9) and cytological (10, 11) analysis of the aspirate after stimulation with secretin alone or with secretin and pancreozymin (12, 13) and a 72-hour quan-titative stool fat analysis on a control diet (14-17). These tests, however, are time consuming and require trained personnel if they are to be reliable. This paper presents data believed to in-dicate the value of a group of simple tests in screening for pancreatic disease, thus permitting the selection of those cases Received July 16, 1962; accepted for publicatio