Acute cholecystitis: MR findings and differentiation from chronic cholecystitis.

Purpose: To retrospectively determine the sensitivity and specificity of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for differentiation between acute and chronic cholecystitis, with histopathologic analysis as the reference standard.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval with waived informed consent was obtained for this HIPAA-compliant study. Four reviewers blinded to the cholecystitis type but aware that cholecystitis was present retrospectively evaluated MR images for predetermined findings in 32 patients (15 male, 17 female; mean age +/- standard deviation, 55 years +/- 20) with histopathologically proved acute or chronic cholecystitis.