Imaging pancreatic islet cell tumours

Pancreatic islet cell tumours are rare neoplasms with varying malignant potential depending on the tumour type. They usually present with a recognizable syndrome due to hormonal hypersecretion.While a wide range of imaging modalities are employed for their detection and staging, none has proven universally successful.On ultrasound the lesions are usually homogeneous and hypoechoic relative to normal pancreas.Endoscopic and intraoperative ultrasound are more sensitive than transabdominal ultrasound but require experience to perform and interpret.On CT the tumours are often isodense with normal pancreas prior to contrast medium injection but usually enhance markedly on dynamic scanning as do metastases in the liver.On MRI the tumours are of low signal intensity on T1 Weighted imaging but enhance with gadolinium, and are of high signal intensity on T2 Weighted imaging relative to normal pancreas.On angiography the lesions are hypervascular. However, angiography and transhepatic portal venous sampling have be...