Comparative study of pineapple juice as a negative oral contrast agent in magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to compare the image quality of magnetic resonance Cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) using Pineapple Juice (PJ) or ranitidine as negative oral contrast agents and no agent.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

MRCP images of patients administered PJ (n = 117) or Ranitidine (n = 110) at random, and patients without an agent (n = 50) were evaluated. The subjective image quality of the overall, extra hepatic bile duct and pancreatic duct and the degree of elimination of gastrointestinal fluid were scored by two blinded radiologists. RESULTS were compared using Mann-Whitney's U-test.

RESULTS

The degrees of elimination of gastro duodenal fluid of PJ and ranitidine were significantly better than those without an agent (p < 0.01 and p < 0.01, respectively). The subjective image quality of PJ of the overall and extra hepatic bile duct were significantly better, although no significant differences for ranitidine were observed compared with those without an agent (p < 0.01 and p =0.23, p = 0.025 and p = 0.18). There were no significant differences for the pancreatic duct (p = 0.13 and p = 0.20), nor were there any significant differences in the evaluations between PJ and ranitidine (p = 0.21 and p = 0.96).

CONCLUSION

PJ showed better performance compared to that of conventional ranitidine in terms of pancreatic and biliary depiction and safety.