Acute pancreatitis with gradient echo T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging.

Background: To study gradient recalled echo (GRE) T2*-weighted imaging (T2*WI) for normal pancreasand acute pancreatitis (AP). Methods: Fifty-one patients without any pancreatic disorders (control group) and 117 patients with AP were recruited. T2* values derived from T2*WI of the pancreaswere measured for the two groups. The severity of AP was graded by the magnetic resonance severity index (MRSI) and the Acute Physiology and Chronic Healthy Evaluation II ( APACHE II) scoring system. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between the T2* values and AP. The usefulness of the T2* value for diagnosing AP and the relationship between the T2* values and the severity of AP were also analyzed. Results: On GRE-T2*WI, the normal pancreasshowed a well-marinated and consistently homogeneous isointensity. Edematous AP, as well as the non-necrotic area in necrotizing AP, showed ill-defined but homogeneous signal intensity. AP with pancreatic hemorrhage showed a decreased T2* value and a signal loss on the signal decay curve. The T2* value of pancreasin the AP group was higher than that of the control group (t=−8.20, P 0.05). AP was associated with a one standard deviation increment in the T2* value (OR =1.37; 95% CI: 1.216–1.532). Conclusions: T2*WI demonstrates a few characteristics of the normal pancreasand AP, which could potentially be helpful for detecting hemorrhage, and contributes to diagnosing AP and its severity.