Direct Visualization of Pancreatic Juice Flow Using Unenhanced MRI With Spin Labeling Can Be Aid in Diagnosing Chronic Pancreatitis

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study is to prospectively assess whether direct visualization of pancreatic juice flow using an unenhanced MRI technique with spin labeling can aid in the diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Ten healthy volunteers and 50 patients who were categorized as having no chronic pancreatitis (n = 11), early chronic pancreatitis (n = 7), or established chronic pancreatitis (n = 32) underwent MRI, including direct pancreatic juice visualization using a flow-out technique with a time-spatial labeling inversion pulse, comprising a nonselective inversion recovery pulse immediately followed by a spatially selective inversion labeling pulse. The mean velocities and volumes of pancreatic juice excretion were also obtained. Variance tests were used to evaluate the clinical groups with respect to the appearance rate and mean velocity; the Kruskal-Wallis test was used for volume. RESULTS. There were no significant differences between healthy volunteers and patients with no...