Effectiveness of MR imaging for diagnosing the mild forms of acute pancreatitis: comparison with MDCT.
OBJECTIVE
To assess the usefulness of MRI and determine which MR sequence is most effective for diagnosing the mild forms of acute pancreatitis.


METHODS
Forty subjects (20 normal volunteers and 20 patients with a mild form of acute pancreatitis) underwent MRI with fat-suppressed T1-weighted fast low-angle shot (FLASH), half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE), and TSE short TI inversion recovery (TSE-STIR) sequences. The 20 patients with a mild form of acute pancreatitis underwent multidetector CT (MDCT) and MRI within a 24-hour interval. We qualitatively analyzed all of the images by assessing inflammatory changes in the pancreas and peripancreatic fat. We quantitatively compared differences in pancreas-liver contrast between the control and patient groups for each MR sequence by measuring the signal intensities of the pancreas and liver.


RESULTS
TSE-STIR was the best of the four modalities for delineating peripancreatic and pancreatic inflammation (P < 0.01). TSE-STIR depicted definitive peripancreatic and pancreatic inflammation in 18 and 15 patients, respectively. MDCT depicted only three cases of peripancreatic inflammation. TSE-STIR was also produced the best the best quantitative results of the MR sequences (P = 0.09).


CONCLUSIONS
MRI is helpful for diagnosing the mild forms of acute pancreatitis. We recommend the use of TSE-STIR imaging as part of the routine protocol for evaluating pancreatitis.
Kim
Young Kon
YK
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Chonbuk National University Hospital and Medical School, JeonJu, South Korea. jmyr@dreamwiz.com
Ko
Seog Wan
SW
Kim
Chong Soo
CS
Hwang
Seung Bae
SB
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019283:Pancreatitis, Acute Necrotizing / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*