MR cholangiography in the evaluation of patients with duodenal periampullary diverticulum.

OBJECTIVE

This retrospective study evaluates the relationship between periampullary duodenal diverticula and the common bile duct (CBD).

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

The patients were examined with HASTE breath hold MR cholangiography (MRC) using a 1 T Siemens Expert Plus Scanner. Axial T2-weighted images were also obtained in all patients.

RESULTS

From the 66 patients, only 23 clearly depicted to have deverticula, while 31 patients were suspected to have diverticula and for the rest 12 patients, the MRC results were negative. From these 66 patients, the 18 patients proved to have stones in the CBD.

CONCLUSION

MRC has very low sensitivity in the detection of duodenum diverticula, but is the method of choice to evaluate their relationship with the distal part of the CBD.