Presentation
Right upper quadrant ultrasound on an ED patient with vague abdominal pain. Normal ultrasound study. Discharged with diagnosis of enteritis.
Patient Data
Transverse images of the normal pancreas. 6 MHz curved transducer with harmonics turned on.
The normal pancreas is slightly less echogenic than the surrounding retroperitoneal fat (compare the pancreas with the fat around the SMA (above).
Flow comes toward and then away from the transducer in a normal splenic vein.
Annotated image of a normal pancreas. A number of vascular structures serve as landmarks when evaluating the pancreas on abdominal ultrasound.
Case Discussion
Normal pancreas on ultrasound.