title: Noninvasive investigation of exocrine pancreatic function: Feasibility of cine dynamic MRCP with a spatially selective inversion-recovery pulse.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the feasibility of noncontrast-enhanced cine dynamic magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) with a spatially selective inversion-recovery (IR) pulse for evaluating exocrine pancreatic function in comparison with the N-benzoyl-L-tyrosyl-p-aminobenzoic acid (BT-PABA) test as a pancreatic exocrine function test.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty subjects with or without chronic pancreatitis were included. MRCP with a spatially selective IR pulse was repeated every 15 seconds for 5 minutes to acquire a total of 20 images (cine-dynamic MRCP). The median and mean frequency of the observation (the number of times) and the moving distance (mean secretion grading scores) of pancreatic juice inflow on cine-dynamic MRCP were compared with a BT-PABA test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The urinary PABA excretion rate (%) had significant positive correlations with both the mean secretion grade (r = 0.66, P = 0.002) and frequency of secretory inflow (r = 0.62, P = 0.004) in cine dynamic MRCP. Both the mean frequency of observations of pancreatic secretory inflow (1.4 ± 1.6 times vs. 14.3 ± 4.2 times, P < 0.001) and the mean secretion grade (grade = 0.16 ± 0.24 vs. grade = 1.81 ± 0.81, P < 0.001) was significantly lower in the chronic pancreatitis group than in the normal subject group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cine dynamic MRCP with a spatially selective IR pulse may have potential for estimating the pancreatic exocrine function noninvasively as a substitute for the BT-PABA test.
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuya
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yasokawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Katsuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tamada
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hayashida
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Daigo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tanimoto
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Higaki
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasufumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Noda
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kawasaki Medical School, Okayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Ayumu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kido
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D049448:Cholangiopancreatography, Magnetic Resonance / Q000379:methods*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010179:Pancreas / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010195:Pancreatitis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
keywords: MR imaging; chronic pancreatitis; cine dynamic MRCP; pancreas; pancreatic exocrine function