Angiographic assessment of pancreatic pseudocyst: a reappraisal.

The correct diagnosis was established by angiography in 16 of 21 patients with pancreatic pseudocyst. The characteristic angiographic abnormalities are arcuate stretching of intrapancreatic arteries combined with a filling defect in the parenchymal phase of the angiogram. In the five false negative patients, the diagnosis was not made either because of the small size of the pseudocyst or a primary extrapancreatic location of the lesion. Because of this high false negative rate and the accuracy of B-mode ultrasonic scanning in abdominal cystic lesions, ultrasound should be the primary diagnostic modality in patients with suspected pancreatic pseudocysts.