Objective: To identify through ecoendoscopy (EE) hyperecogenic pancreas and to determinate risk factors for it in a sample of patients evaluated between June 2005 and May 2010.
Material and methods: Cases and controls study, retrospective observational study, in a population of 5,495 patients; from them 989 were selected as cases (with an increase of partial or global ecogenicity of the pancreas) and 642 controls (with a normal pancreatic ecopattern). Demographical, clinical and ecoendoscopical variables from both groups were compared; OR were calculated with their 95%CI, after bivariate and multivariate risk factors analyses.
Results: In the studied population, identified risk factors, mostly associated at the multivariate analyses, included: liver steatosis (OR=29.581; 95%CI 17.942-48.770), mixed hepatopathy (OR=10.724; 95%CI 1.634-70.378), hypothyroidism (OR=8.381; 95%CI 2.067-33.977) and smoking (OR=2.790; 95%CI 1.036-7.515). Other factors were: chronic hepatopathy, family history of diabetes mellitus and high blood pressure, age and body mass index.
Conclusions: There are few studies regard the identification of risk factors for pancreatic steatosis using EE. Current findings are similar with others recently reported in other countries, where liver steatosis is a predictor to find hyperecogenic pancreas at the EE (OR=29). However, this study found an association two-fold higher than that previously reported. In addition, is clear that in this study there are multiple factors associated with the finding of hyperecogenic pancreas that should be considered.