Anyone here have medical knowledge of pancreatic cysts?

[Thaleia]

Title

[old goat]

Do you mean pseudocysts? What do you want to know?

[Thaleia]

Interesting, pseudocysts haven't been a term used in the reports or doctor visits.

They've been calling them cysts all along.

So, on a recent unrelated MRI it was noticed my pancreas was slightly atrophied and they noticed cysts less than 5mm., triggering a follow up MRI.

The next report confirms many tiny cyst lesions between 9 and 14 mm.

The follow up with my family doctor (who is generally amazing) was that we'll just monitor things and there's no concern.

Next MRI in 12 months.I guess basically my first thought is, given the fact these things appear to be growing, how does that affect my overall risk level (which I know you can't really answer not knowing my history or past test results) but generally, growth equals heightened risk I assume?And is there a cyst (sorry to keep saying this damn word lol) size or growth level that is an indicator of danger?

[old goat]

That's better than pseudocysts. While there are some true cysts that are potentially worrisome, multiple small cysts are almost certainly of no concern. Follow up in a year is reasonable. What is the time gap between the two MRIs? Have you ever had pancreatitis?

[Thaleia]

Well that is certainly comforting thank you.



The first MRI that accidently spotted these was mid August 2024 which prompted this one on February 20 2025 and I don't have a date yet for next years.

[old goat]

Wikipedia is my go to source for medical problems I'm less familiar with---the articles are reasonably technical and specific while being understandable for lay people. A lot of sources for the lay public are too simplistic and lack detail. If you want to go down the rabbit hole the literature for the medical community can be searched on PubMed--the searchable journal index of the NIH. At least for now. A lot of the articles are only available as abstracts unless you have access through an institution.