Patient and lesion characteristics associated with follow-up completion for pancreatic cystic lesions detected on MRI.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the association of patient characteristics, community-level social determinants of health, and cyst risk categories with completion of follow-up recommendations for incidental Pancreatic Cystic Lesions (PCLs).

METHODS

We retrospectively identified consecutive patients (2013-2023) whose MRI radiology reports described PCLs. A fine-tuned LLaMA-3.1 8B Instruct large language model was used to extract PCL features. Lesions were classified using the 2017 ACR white paper: Category 1 (low risk), Category 2 (worrisome features), or Category 3 (high-risk stigmata). We recorded demographics and follow-up imaging or endoscopic ultrasound dates. Community-level factors were characterized by the 2020 CDC Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), stratified into quartiles. The primary outcome, "inappropriate follow-up," combined late and no follow-up. Multivariable binomial regression was applied to evaluate associations with inappropriate follow-up.

RESULTS

In 7,745 patients (mean age 66.3 years; 4,796 women), 92.9% (7,198/7,745) of cysts were Category 1, 6.4% (498/7,745) were Category 2, and 0.6% (49/7,745) were Category 3. Only 36.3% of patients completed appropriate follow-up, 12.1% were late, and 51.6% were lost to follow-up. Inappropriate follow-up was high in every cyst category: 64.2% in Category 1, 59.4% in Category 2 and 49.0% in Category 3. In multivariable analysis, non-English primary language (RR 1.08; 95% CI, 1.02-1.14) and residing in more vulnerable communities of the 3rd quartiles of the socioeconomic Social Vulnerability Index subcategory (RR 1.07; 95% CI, 1.02-1.12) were associated with inappropriate follow-up. Higher age-adjusted Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI ≥ 4) (RR .84; 95% CI, .79-.88), CCI 2-3 (RR .84; 95% CI, .79-.88), and higher-risk cysts in patients under 65 years of age (RR .76; 95% CI, .65-.89) were associated with completed follow-up.

CONCLUSION

Follow-up completion for incidental PCLs was low. Factors most consistently associated with follow-up completion were language barriers, residence in socioeconomically vulnerable communities, age-adjusted CCI and higher-risk features among those under 65 years.