Gastrointestinal tract involvement in acute pancreatitis: initial findings and follow-up by magnetic resonance imaging

Background: To study the initial and follow up patterns of gastrointestinal tract involvement in acute pancreatitis (AP) using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methods: A total of 209 patients with AP undergoing abdominal MRI on 1.5 T MRI were compared to 100 control patients selected from our daily clinical caseload who underwent MRI over the same recruitment period and had no other disease which can cause abnormality of gastrointestinal tract. Initial and follow up MRI examinations of gastrointestinal tract abnormalities were noted for AP patients. The severity of AP was graded by the MRSI and APACHE II. Spearman correlation of gastrointestinal tract involvement with MRSI and APACHE II was analyzed. Results: In 209 patients with AP, 63% of the AP patients on their initial MRI exams and 5% of control subjects had at least one gastrointestinal tract abnormality (P Conclusions: Gastrointestinal tract abnormalities on MRI are common in AP and they are positively correlated with the severity of AP. It may add value for determining the severity of AP.