TABLE 1.
Patient characteristics
| All patients (n = 24) | |
|---|---|
| Age (IQR), years | 73.5 (66.8–76.0) |
| Sex (male/female), n | 15/9 |
| Location of the lesion (Ph/Pbt) | 10/14 |
| Reasons for SPACE | |
| Main pancreatic duct stenosis without mass confirmed by imaging studies, n (%) | 16 (66.7) |
| EUS‐FNA did not provide a definitive diagnosis, n (%) | 4 (16.7) |
| Intraductal tumor, n (%) | 4 (16.7) |
| Final diagnosis | |
| Malignant cases, n = 11 | |
| Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, n (%) | 9 (37.5) |
| Invasive carcinoma, n (%) | 7 (29.2) |
| Carcinoma in situ, n (%) | 2 (8.3) |
| Noninvasive IPMC (mixed type), n (%) | 1 (4.2) |
| Invasive ITPN, n (%) | 1 (4.2) |
| Benign cases, n = 13＊ | |
| Low‐grade IPMN (mixed type), n (%) | 1 (4.2) |
| Low‐grade PanIN, n (%) | 1 (4.2) |
| AIP, n (%) | 2 (8.3) |
| Benign pancreatic duct stenosis, n (%) | 9 (37.5) |
| Follow‐up period (IQR), months | |
| Overall | 25.3 (17.4–41.5) |
| Nonresected cases | 23.2 (16.7–31.7) |
Abbreviations: AIP, autoimmune pancreatitis; EUS‐FNA, endoscopic ultrasound‐guided fine needle aspiration; IPMC, intraductal papillary mucinous carcinoma; IPMN, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm; IQR, interquartile range; ITPN, intraductal tubulopapillary neoplasm; PanIN, pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia; Pbt, pancreatic body or tail; Ph, pancreatic head; SPACE, serial pancreatic juice aspiration cytological examination.
*Low‐grade IPMN, low‐grade PanIN, and one case of AIP were diagnosed on the basis of the examination of resected specimens. The remaining 10 cases were diagnosed on the basis of their clinical courses.