Value of MRI with SENSE imaging in detecting of insulinoma.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of MRI pulse sequences with SENSE coil for depicting insulinoma. Methods: Thirteen patients with clinically suspected insulinoma, documented by pathologic examination of resected specimens, underwent MRI examination. An investigator determined the following data for each tumor: size, location, margination, signal intensity, and contrast enhancement pattern. In addition, the evidence of metastases was assessed. Results: Masses were located throughout the pancreas (head, n=2; neck, n=1; body, n=2; tail, n=6, and uncinate process, n=2). The mean maximal diameter was 13.7 mm (range, from 6 mm. to 30 mm.). The sensitivity of detecting tumor on different MR techniques were 30.7% on in-phase T1-weighted images, 61.5% on T2-weight images with fat suppression technique, 76.9% on pre-contrast 3D-GRE T1-weighted images, and 46.1% on dynamic 3D-GRE Gd images. The tumor detection rate obtained by both T2-weight images with fat suppression technique and pre-contrast 3D-GRE T1-weighted images were highest one (91.7%) with the same sensitivity of detecting tumor by the complete set of MR images. Two patients had metastatic liver disease at presentation. Conclusion: Recent advanced MR imaging is one of the sensitive imaging modalities for detecting the presence of insulinoma and metastatic disease. Combined pre-contrast 3D GRE sequence and T2-weighted images with fat suppression are the essential recent MR protocol.

Apudomas pancreáticos: um desafio para clínicos e cirurgiões / Pancreatic apudomas: a challenge for surgeons and physicians

OBJETIVO: O propósito do presente estudo é analisar as dificuldades quanto ao diagnóstico, avaliação prognóstica e conduta em sete pacientes portadores de tumores neuroendócrinos do pâncreas (apudomas), estudados na última década, comparando os resultados com aqueles discutidos na literatura. MÉTODO: A idade dos pacientes variou de 15 a 66 anos, com média de 38,4 anos. Todos foram submetidos a alguma forma de ressecção pancreática por tumores neuroendócrinos. Os exames histológicos foram feitos pelas técnicas tradicionais e por imuno-histoquímica. RESULTADOS: Três pacientes tiveram um diagnóstico inespecífico de tumor neuroendócrino; dois de vipoma e dois de gastrinoma. As síndromes não se manifestaram claramente, ainda que cada caso tenha tido um rótulo diagnóstico. Os exames por imuno-histoquímica demonstraram a presença de múltiplos hormônios, mas por falta de sintomas clínicos, as correlações ficaram prejudicadas na maioria dos casos, havendo correlação somente em caso de gastrinoma. Um paciente faleceu no pós-operatório; um sobreviveu sete anos e cinco estão vivos, com sobrevida variando entre três e cinco anos. CONCLUSÕES: Não houve uma manifestação sindrômica evidente, porém a sobrevida dos pacientes tem sido compatível com os dados de literatura.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the present study is to analyze the difficulties concerning diagnostic, prognostic and clinical conduct of seven patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (APUDomas), evaluated over the past decade. METHODS: Patients varied in age from 15 to 66 years old, with a mean age of 38.4 years. All patients underwent some type of pancreatic resection as treatment of the neuroendocrine tumor. The histological sections were submitted to traditional and imunohistochemical examination. RESULTS: Three patients were diagnosed with unspecific neuroendocrine tumor, two with VIPoma and two with Gastrinoma. Syndromes were not clearly manifested, although every case had a differential diagnosis. Imunohistochemistry showed the presence of multiple hormones, but due to the lack of clinical symptoms, correlation was harmed in most cases, however one Gastrinoma showed typical clinical symptoms. One patient died in the post-operative period, one survived for 7 years and five are still alive, with a life expectancy varying from 3 to 5 years. CONCLUSIONS: We observed a lack of typical clinical syndromes for most cases, but life expectancy was compatible with the one described in the literature.

Malignant Glucagonoma of the Pancreas: A case report / 대한내분비외과학회지

Glucagonomas are rare pancreatic tumors of islet ahpha-2 cells. Less than 430 cases have been reported worldwide and 210 cases are malignant tumors. In generally, the tumors typically present with a characteristic constellation of symptoms including necrolytic migratory erythema of the skin, weight loss, non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, anemia, cheliosis, stomatitis, and an increased thrombotic tendency. Since pancreatic glucagonomas are predominantly located in the tail and findings of radiographic or sonographic examination can remain unspecific, patients often present already metastasis when diagnosis is first established, and can be difficult to differentiate from the other pancreatic tumors. We report the case of a 59-year-old woman with an malignant glucagonoma of the pancreas infiltrating already the spleen and presenting metastatic lesion in perirenal lymph nodes, and that the tumor was not assocated with the characteristic skin rash. The pateint with a past history of a diabetes mellitus and hypertension for 9 years was admitted with cramp-like left lower abdominal pain, watery diarrhea, and nausea. A solid tumor of tail of the pancreas revealed by ultrasonography and abdominal computed tomography and distal pancreatectomy, radical nephrectomy, and splenectomy were performed. Immunohistochemial examination of the tumor did show glucagon-reactive tissue and electron microscopy revealed many secretory granules, 180 to 300 nm in diameter in granulated cells. After pancreatic tumor resection, the patient had normalization of plasma glucagon and blood sugar.

Islet Cell Tumors of the Pancreas

PURPOSE: Islet cell tumors are a rare disease that can be cured by surgical management if they are early diagnosed. However, diagnosis and localization are difficult due to their small size and varied clinical manifestations. We analyzed the clinicopathologic features, the diagnosis and the surgical management of islet cell tumors. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed the case histories of 30 patients had undergone pancreatic surgery for islet cell tumors between April 1990 and December 1999. RESULTS: The islet-cell tumors included 16 insulinomas, 4 gastrinomas, 1 glucagonoma, one insulin-gastrin secreting tumor, and 8 nonfunctioning tumors. The major clinical manifestations were neuroglycopenic (94%) and adrenergic (75%) symptoms in cases of an insulinoma, abdominal ulcer symptoms (100%) in the cases of a gastrinoma, diabetis mellitus (100%) in the cases of a glucagonoma, and abdominal pain (63%) and a mass (25%) in nonfunctioning tumor. The preoperative tumor localization tools were angiography, transhepatic portal vein sampling, endoscopic ultrasonography, computed tomography, and octreotide scans which had sensitivities of 56%, 71%, 55.5%, 43.3%, and, 25% respectively. The surgical treatments were enucleation (38%) or segmental resection (25%) for insulinomas, pancreaticoduodenectomy with total gastrectomy (25%) or total pancreatectomy (25%) for gastrinomas, and pylorus preserving pancre aticoduodenectomy (38%) or regional pancreatectomy (26%) for nonfunctioning tumors. Malignant islet cell tumors were presenting cases (30%). Two patients died with postoperative complications on post operative day 3 and 35; the others survived during the follow-up period (1 month-10 years). Islet cell tumors with multiple endocrine neoplasm type I occurred in five (17%) cases; in three cases, the tumors were malignant. CONCLUSION: The early diagnosis and vigorous attempt to resect the lesion in islet cell tumors of the pancreas should be carried out for the long-term survival.