Comparative study of pineapple juice as a negative oral contrast agent in magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to compare the image quality of magnetic resonance Cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) using Pineapple Juice (PJ) or ranitidine as negative oral contrast agents and no agent.


METHODS
MRCP images of patients administered PJ (n = 117) or Ranitidine (n = 110) at random, and patients without an agent (n = 50) were evaluated. The subjective image quality of the overall, extra hepatic bile duct and pancreatic duct and the degree of elimination of gastrointestinal fluid were scored by two blinded radiologists. RESULTS were compared using Mann-Whitney's U-test.


RESULTS
The degrees of elimination of gastro duodenal fluid of PJ and ranitidine were significantly better than those without an agent (p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively). The subjective image quality of PJ of the overall and extra hepatic bile duct were significantly better, although no significant differences for ranitidine were observed compared with those without an agent (p < 0.01 and p =0.23, p = 0.025 and p = 0.18). There were no significant differences for the pancreatic duct (p = 0.13 and p = 0.20), nor were there any significant differences in the evaluations between PJ and ranitidine (p = 0.21 and p = 0.96).


CONCLUSIONS
PJ showed better performance compared to that of conventional ranitidine in terms of pancreatic and biliary depiction and safety.
Vice Dean of Medical Affairs, Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, College of Medicine, Qassim University , Saudi Arabia .
Fahad Mohammed Ali
FM
Alshehri
Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography; Negative oral contrast agent; Pineapple juice; Ranitidine