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Background Acute pancreatitis is a reversible inflammation of the pancreatic parenchyma. Enlargement of the pancreas is often envisaged in such conditions. This study evaluates P/V ratio, as a marker to decide pancreatic enlargement in disease condition. Purpose The aim of this study was to develop imaging-based diagnostic criterion for acute pancreatitis in children based on P/V ratio. Material and Methods This study included 37 children with acute pancreatitis and 283 children asymptomatic for pancreatic disorders, from a single hospital center. The age of children ranged between 2 and 18 years. P/V ratio, which is the ratio of greatest anteroposterior dimension of the head, body, and tail of the pancreas relative to the transverse lumbar vertebral body, was obtained for each child through ultrasonographic examination. Age-adjusted receiver operating characteristics (AROC) analysis was performed on P/V ratio at presentation for each pancreatic region, and the sensitivity at 90% specificity, the threshold errors, and the corresponding cutoffs were obtained. The enlargement assessment was also done after clinical recovery by referring to the cutoffs of respective regions. Results AROC analysis for males and females resulted into a maximum sensitivity of 83.33 and 81.67%, respectively, at 90% specificity for head. The error thresholds for both the groups were same, i.e., 0.098, indicating that 90% of the observations had errors less than the threshold. The corresponding P/V ratio cutoff for males and females was 0.43 and 0.42, respectively. Conclusion Radiologists and clinicians can refer a cutoff value of 0.4 for each region, along with hypoechogenicity, to decide about enlargement of the pancreas in acute pancreatitis condition.
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OBJECTIVES: This study aims at determining the normal pancreatic dimensions in pediatric age groups considering demographic parameters and thus developing percentile reference curves for normal pancreatic dimensions in Indian children. SETTING AND DESIGN: It is a cross-sectional study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was planned at a children hospital during July 2016-December 2017, in which the pancreatic dimensions of 1078 normal children in the age range of 1 month to 19 years were obtained through abdominal ultrasonography (USG). The demographic details like age and gender were obtained for each child. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Percentile reference curves were obtained with reference to age for each gender type independently. Generalized additive models for location, scale, and shape were used to obtain percentile plots for each pancreatic part. RESULTS: The mean age of children was 6.65 ± 4.43 years and the male-to-female ratio was 1.63:1. The head, body, and tail dimensions increased with the age. For head, up to 25th percentile, the curves were similar for both genders, while subsequent curves were higher in males as compared to females. Similar was the observation for body of pancreas. For tail, up to 75th percentile, the curves were similar for both genders. CONCLUSION: The normal ranges can be supportive in diagnosis of illness related to pancreas. The dimensions within 5-95th percentile along with iso-echogenicity can be regarded as normal, while the dimensions beyond these limits along with change of echogenicity can be suspected for pancreatic disorders.
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Panayiotopoulos syndrome is a benign childhood epileptic illness characterized by episodic autonomic symptoms. We present a 9 year old boy with this condition, who presented with episodes of severe vomiting, fever, deviation of eyes and altered sensorium, characteristic EEG in the form of multiple occipital spikes and normal neuroradiologic and metabolic investigations.