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Embryology (Pancreas)

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So before we start dealing with the

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congenital anomalies, we need to

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know embryology of the pancreas.

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Uh, during the embryological age, pancreatic

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buds are developed as ventral and dorsal

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buds along with the primitive duodenum.

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And the ventral bud also gives rise to the CBD.

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And what happens afterwards, the ventral

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bud rotates all the way backwards,

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ventrally, to fuse with the dorsal duct.

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And both of these separate ducts

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are present for each of the bud.

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The duct for the dorsal duct is called

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as duct of Santorini, and for the ventral

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duct, it is called as duct of Wirsung.

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And eventually what happens, these, both of the

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ducts fuse together to form the main pancreatic

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duct, which opens into the major papilla here.

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And the dorsal duct, or duct of Santorini

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here, continues with the minor papilla.

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So it can happen that fusion can occur in such

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a way that you have persistent duct of Santorini,

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and this duct never fuses, or never develops.

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So those can give rise to different

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kinds of anomalies, and we are

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going to deal with them one by one.

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The most common anomalies which we

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deal with in the real practice is divisum.

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We see a lot.

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It is usually asymptomatic.

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If it is symptomatic, that will lead to,

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most likely, pancreatitis, because what is happening

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here, we are draining all the pancreatic

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enzymes through the minor papilla, and that

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will lead to pain abdomen or pancreatitis.

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And good thing to know that if you see an

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outpouching, a small outpouching at the end

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of the minor papilla, arising from the duct of

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Santorini, in a case of divisum, that is a

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suggestion that possibly that is causing

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the patient suffering from the pancreatitis.

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So, this is the pancreas here.

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And we have duct of centurine or dorsal

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duct draining to the main parenchyma.

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And in divisum what can happen is that

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there is no ventral duct at all.

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Like in, here I am showing you.

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And there is no communication, there is no duct.

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But sometimes you can have the ventral duct

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which is present, which is diminutive.

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And it doesn't fuse with the main duct.

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And the third type, we can have the communication

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between the ventral duct and the dorsal duct.

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But this communication is

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kind of very, very small.

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Very Dimi, and that doesn't function at all.

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So practically it is not functioning.

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And all of the secretions are coming from the

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main duct to drain into the minor papilla here.

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So these are the three different

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types of divisum, and this is the way

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we can pick up divisum on MRCP images.

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We can see the main pancreatic duct and

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that drains to the, the minor papilla and

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the CBD drains to the major papilla, and

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we cannot even see the vent duct here.

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And this crisscross pattern is very, very

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diagnostic, very specific for, for divisum.

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And here we can see on the axial images,

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on T2 weighted images, we can see the main

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pancreatic duct is draining towards the minor

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papilla and the CBD is posterior to that.

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Usually, the ventral duct should come here and

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join together to open with the major papilla here.

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And this is how we can differentiate between the

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divisum and persistent duct of centurine here.

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If we have dominant ventral duct,

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which joins with the main duct here, that will

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be called as persistent duct of centurine.

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And this may or may not be symptomatic

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at all, because we have still the

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main channel which is functioning.

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And everything is draining

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towards the major papilla.

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So, be sure that you understand the

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difference between the persistent

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duct of centurine and divisum.

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And they are different, but they are very close.

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And this is the case I am going to

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show you on this Cine loop, how we

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can see the crisscross pattern here.

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This is the duct draining to the minor

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papilla and then we are seeing the major

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duct coming downwards with the CBD here.

Report

Faculty

Neeraj Lalwani, MD, FSAR, DABR

Professor and Chief of Abdominal Radiology

Montefiore Medical Center, New York

Tags

Pancreas

MRI

Idiopathic

Congenital

Body

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