Demonstration of the dorsal pancreatic artery by CTA to facilitate superselective arterial infusion of stem cells into the pancreas.

Purpose: To investigate the diagnostic performance of 64-section CTA in the detection of dorsal pancreatic artery before interventional therapy for patients with diabetes.

Materials And Methods: The study was approved by the institutional ethics committee; written informed consent was obtained. Forty-two consecutive patients with diabetes received an experimental treatment of autologous bone marrow-derived stem cell transplantation by means of infusion into the dorsal pancreatic artery. All cases underwent abdominal CTA before angiography of pancreatic arteries in order to locate the origin and course of dorsal pancreatic artery. Angiography of coeliac artery, splenic artery, common hepatic artery and superior mesenteric artery were performed both in CTA and DSA. Superselective catheterization of dorsal pancreatic artery was carried out for the infusion of stem cell. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for the detection of dorsal pancreatic artery with CTA were calculated using DSA images as the reference standard.

Results: Thirty-five and thirty-six dorsal pancreatic arteries were detected by CTA and DSA respectively. Dorsal pancreatic artery was not visualized in either CTA or DSA in 5 patients. The sensitivity, specificity and accuracy for CTA were 94.4%, 83.3% and 92.9%.

Conclusion: 64-section CTA is accurate for the detection of dorsal pancreatic artery. It may be useful for the facilitation of superselective arterial infusion of stem cells to pancreas.