Evaluation of Chronic Pancreatitis With T ρ MRI: A Preliminary Study.

Background: Chronic pancreatitis (CP) can result in persistent damage to the endocrine and exocrine tissues of the pancreas. There is an unmet need for quantitative methods to evaluate CP noninvasively.

Purpose: To investigate the utility of T ρ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for the assessment of CP.

Study Type: Prospective.

Population: Twenty patients with CP and 24 healthy volunteers.

Field Strength/sequence: 3T MRI including T ρ sequence (spin lock time = 0, 1, 10, 20, 40, 60 msec).

Assessment: Pancreatic T ρ values and anterior-posterior (AP) diameters in the head, body, and tail were measured in all participants. Regions of interest with circle (ROI ) and free-hand (ROI ) were drawn for T ρ value measurements.

Statistical Tests: Mann-Whitney U-test; Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test; receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve; and Bland-Altman analysis.

Results: The T ρ values of pancreatic tail and the mean T ρ values for ROI and the T ρ values of pancreatic tail for ROI in patients with CP were significantly higher than those in healthy volunteers (all P < 0.05). Pancreatic head AP diameter significantly increased, while pancreatic tail AP diameter significantly decreased in patients with CP compared with healthy volunteers (both P < 0.05). The areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) of pancreatic tail T ρ values with ROI and tail AP diameter in diagnosing CP were 0.744 and 0.798, respectively. A combination of pancreatic tail T ρ values with ROI and tail AP diameter achieved good performance for diagnosing CP (AUC = 0.838).

Data Conclusion: T ρ MRI might be a potential technique for the noninvasive evaluation of CP. Level of Evidence 2 Technical Efficacy Stage 2 J. MAGN. RESON. IMAGING 2021;53:577-584.