3.4　Pancreatic Function Tests

Although required for reliable diagnosis of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency，available pancreatic function tests are hampered by either limited availability due to invasiveness and/or high costs，or limited sensitivity and specificity.For clinical purposes，non-invasive tests are recommended（HaPanEU 2016；Hoffmeister et al.2012）and，of these，stool tests are generally preferred.Invasive tests such as the secretin- or secretinpancreozymin test are highly sensitive and specific and therefore generally accepted as reference method（Hoffmeister et al.2012；Keller and Layer 2015）.However，they are also compromised by high costs，complicated procedures and lack of standardization，Theoretically，they are still required for evaluation of new pancreatic function tests but they are hardly indicated in clinical situations.(https://www.daowen.com)