Many tests of pancreatic function are available. Among those that a physician may order, depending on the suspected condition:

• Glucose tests to assess endocrine function
  
  
• Autoantibody testing to look for the autoimmune damage seen in type 1 diabetes
  
  
• Other blood tests, such as enzyme testing to assess exocrine function or a C peptide test to assess production of insulin
  
  
• Fecal (stool) tests of enzymes, fats or nitrogen
  
  
• Secretin stimulation test, in which a tube is passed through the nose, down the throat and into the stomach and upper part of the small intestine to assess how the pancreas responds to the hormone secretin during digestion
  
  
• Ultrasound
  
  
• CAT scan (computed axial tomography), an imaging test that involves multiple x-rays
  
  
• An imaging test called endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), in which a tube is passed down the throat into the stomach and upper part of the small intestine
  
  
• A type of MRI called magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography
  
  
• PET scan (positron-emission tomography), a radionuclide imaging test that may be able to measure the mass of beta cells

Physicians have no easy, direct way to detect pancreatic inflammation, an early sign of type 1 diabetes. Biopsies are rarely performed because taking tissue samples from the pancreas is potentially risky.

Scientists in Boston are developing a technique that uses MRI technology to highlight this inflammation after iron particles injected into blood vessels travel to the pancreas. People with type 1 diabetes are being recruited for clinical trials of the new technology.