A thorough discussion of the onset and nature of the problem is required.
In addition, a clinical examination may reveal some of the symptoms above, but not in every case.
Further tests are often required including:
Blood tests
General screening test - pancreatitis usually gives non-specific changes to the general profile, but is useful to rule out other conditions.
A specific pancreas inflammation test (cPLI) can be run inhouse to give a more sensitive and specific indication that pancreatitis is present. This needs to be interpreted with other findings as can sometimes give a false positive or negative result.
Abdominal imaging
Ultrasound examination of the abdomen can be very helpful to examine the pancreas for swelling and structural changes and eliminate other abdominal diseases. This is especially valuable when performed by a specialist ultra-sonographer.
Abdominal radiographs (x-rays) can be used to eliminate other conditions, pancreatitis itself can cause a lack of definition in the front part of the abdomen on the X-ray, but no specific findings are usually found.