The Efficacy Of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging For The Evaluation Of Acute Biliary Pancreatitis

Objective:To evaluate the efficacy of diffusion weighted imaging and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in diagnosing acute biliary pancreatitis.Methods:MRI was performed with routine sequences and diffusion weighted imaging on 12 patients with acute biliary pancreatitis,17 patients with obstructive jaundice and 15 normal subject.We measured the pancreas'ADC values of the acceptable images after assessed the quality of the images in the regions of interest. The linear regression were used to determine the relationship between ADC values and laboratory examination data.Results:There were statistically significant differences between patients with acute biliary pancreatitis and normal subject, and the ADC values of patients with acute biliary pancreatitis was decreased. The ADC values of patients with obstructive jaundice lower than normal subject, and higher than patients with acute biliary pancreatitis when b value were 500 and 700 s/mm2.Using linear regression analysised the relationship of the two groups between the results of laboratory examination data and ADC values. P value less than 0.05 between C-reactive protein in acute biliary pancreatitis and the ADC values, the rest were larger than 0.05, which had not statistically significant.Two cases of acute biliary pancreatitis treated two weeks were followed up with DWI, and the pancreatic signal decreased.Conclusion:DWI is a powerful tool for evaluating acute biliary pancreatitis and has a potential to determine at its early stage of progression.MRI routine sequences combined with DWI can evaluate the clinical efficacy.