Rilevazione di variazioni anatomiche del pancreas mediante esame tomografico nel cane

Abstract

Pancreas is an organ located in the peritoneal cavity in dogs, while it is considered to be retroperitoneal in humans. Due to its particular development in length in the canine species, the organ comes into contact with various abdominal organs through its components and thanks to its lax consistency, it manages to creep into very narrow spaces left by these organs, on which therefore the conformations and the relationships of the pancreas depends. Computed tomographic examination represents the diagnostic technique of choice for evaluation of anatomy, relationships and pathology of the pancreas, both in human medicine and in veterinary medicine. Studies concerning anatomy, topography and pancreatic pathologies detected by examination in dogs are lacking, and generate controversy about relationship of the pancreas with the other organs of the abdominal cavity. A retrospective study was performed on a sample of 236 dogs, which underwent computed tomographic examination of the abdomen in sternal recumbency at the Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging Section of the Veterinary Didactic Hospital of the University of Parma, between June 2020 and December 2021. The tomographic images of each patient were evaluated, in order to define the relationships of the pancreas with the surrounding organs. The respective relationships of the body, right lobe and left lobe of the pancreas were evaluated. The results were reported by means of percentages that express the prevalence of a relationship between one of the components of the pancreas and an organ present in the abdomen, on the total study population. Furthermore, the presence of anatomical anomalies was detected in a substantial number of subjects, which can be defined as pancreas displaced at the retroperitoneal level that is which have one or more parts within the retroperitoneum. Finally, a statistical analysis was performed to highlight any associations between anatomical variants of the pancreas and the size of the dog (weight grater or less than 20kg) and between anatomical variants of the pancreas and the conformation of the dog’s chest (barrel or deep chested).