Anatomic changes in the biliary tract and pancreas in patients with diabetes mellitus diagnosed by endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography]

Structural changes in both biliary tract and pancreas have been assessed with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in 100 diabetic patients divided into subgroups depending on the type of diabetes mellitus, i.e. type I, type II and III-pancreatic. Control group included 100 randomly selected patients without diabetes mellitus in whom endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography has been performed for various indications. Structural changes in the biliary tract and pancreas have been more frequent in diabetic patients than in the control group (47 and 75% vs 32 and 30%, respectively). Cholelithiasis has been noted in 27.8% of patients with type II diabetes mellitus and in 11.3% of patients with type I diabetes mellitus; obesity has been found in 57 and 12% of patients, respectively. Other biliary tract disorders, mainly in the form of segmental stenosis or dilatation of the common bile duct, have been more frequent in patients with type II diabetes mellitus. Pancreatic disorders, assessed with the aid of Cambridge classification, have been noted in all patients with pancreatic diabetes and in 80.7% of patients with diabetes mellitus type I. Incidence of so-called doubtful and mild disorders has been more frequent (22.2 and 24.1%, respectively) in patients with diabetes mellitus type II whereas "moderate" and "severe" disorders have been significantly less frequent (7.4 and 1.9% of patients). The results indicate, that endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography is useful in the assessment of bile ducts structure and pancreatic exocrine activity in diabetic patients in whom disorders are more frequent.