Pancreatic Steatosis: Is it Related to Obesity, Diabetes Mellitus and MetabolicSyndrome?

Abstract

The accumulation of fat in the pancreas has been referred to as fatty infiltration, fatty pancreas, fat non-alcoholic pancreatic disease and pancreatic steatosis. Fat accumulation in pancreatic islets causes a decrease of insulin secretion; in addition, a higher proportion of fat pancreas was associated with increased insulin levels in obese nondiabetic subjects. This may be due to accumulation of pancreatic fat. The pancreatic steatosis is easily detectable using ultrasound, computed tomography and magnetic resonance [7-13].