Evaluation of ADC measurements among solid pancreatic masses by respiratory-triggered diffusion-weighted MR imaging with inversion-recovery fat-suppression technique at 3.0 T

PurposeThe objective of this paper was to investigate the value of apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) for differential diagnosis among solid pancreatic masses using respiratory triggered diffusion-weighted MR imaging with inversion-recovery fat-suppression technique (RT-IR-DWI) at 3.0 T.Materials and Methods20 normal volunteers and 72 patients (Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [PDCA, n = 30], mass-forming pancreatitis [MFP, n = 15], solid pseudopapillary neoplasm [SPN, n = 12], and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor[PNET, n = 15]) underwent RT-IR-DWI (b values: 0 and 600 s/mm2) at 3.0 T. Results were correlated with histopathologic data and follow-up imaging. ADC values among different types of pancreatic tissue were statistically analyzed and compared.ResultsStatistical difference was noticed in ADC values among normal pancreas, MFP, PDCA, SPN and PNET by ANOVA (p < .001). Normal pancreas had the highest ADC value, then followed by PNET, PDCA, MFP and SPN. There was noticeable statistical difference in ADC values among PDCA, MFP and normal pancreas by Least Significant Difference (LSD) (p < .001). ADC of SPN was statistically lower than that of PNET (p = 0.1800 × 10− 4), PDCA (p = 0.0300 × 10− 4) and normal pancreas (p = 0.0007 × 10− 4). ADC of PNET was statistically lower than that of normal pancreas (p = 0.0360) and higher than that of MFP (p = 9.3000 × 10− 4).ConclusionsADC measurements using RT-IR-DWI at 3.0 T may aid to disclose the histopathological pattern of normal pancreas and solid pancreatic masses, which may be helpful in characterizing solid pancreatic lesions.