T1ρ Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting in Patients With Chronic Pancreatitis.

BACKGROUND

Noninvasive detection of chronic pancreatitis (CP) is important for proper treatment and prevention of severe pain and pancreatic insufficiency.

PURPOSE: To evaluate if T1ρ MRF is significantly different in healthy volunteers and patients with CP.

STUDY TYPE: Prospective.

POPULATION: Seventeen healthy volunteers (9 male, mean age: 38.0 ± 6.7 years) and 20 patients (12 male, mean age: 53.6 ± 6.4 years) who were clinically diagnosed with CP.

FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3 T, T1ρ MRF acquired during breath-hold (BH-MRF) and free breathing (FB-MRF), conventional T1/T2 mapping sequences.

ASSESSMENT: Mean T1/T2/T1ρ values in the whole pancreas were compared between diagnosed CP patients and controls. The Cambridge classification (CC) score was used to divide patients into mild-moderate (CC = 1-3) and severe (CC = 4) CP subgroups. T1, T2, and T1ρ relaxation maps were generated from both breath-hold (BH) and free-breathing (FB) MRF data.

STATISTICAL TESTS: Mixed effects models were calculated for healthy control versus CP, and between mild-moderate and severe CP. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were analyzed and areas under the curves (AUCs) were calculated. A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant and multiple comparison corrections were applied.

RESULTS

BH-MRF T1/T2/T1ρ values were significantly higher in the CP group (1327.3, 48.6, 49.1 ms) compared to healthy controls (821.6, 41.6, 39.5 ms) with AUCs of 0.994, 0.873, and 0.862, respectively. The MRF BH T1/T2/T1ρ values of mild-moderate CP (N = 7) and severe CP (N = 13) patients were also significantly higher compared to healthy controls. T1 was significantly higher in severe CP compared to mild-moderate CP (1497 and 1012.1 ms, respectively) with AUC = 0.945. FB MRF T1 relaxation times demonstrated good correlation with BH values (0.981), while T2 and T1ρ had moderate correlations (0.507 and 0.697, respectively).

DATA

CONCLUSIONS

T1, T2, and T1ρ relaxation times have potential for noninvasively assessing CP.

EVIDENCE LEVEL: 2.

TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.