Role of MR Cholangiopancreatography in the Diagnosis of Various Pediatric Hepatic and Pancreatobiliary Diseases

Abstract Objective The aim was to determine the role of MR cholangiopancreatography in the diagnosis of various hepatic and pancreatobiliary diseases in children and to correlate the MR imaging findings with the clinical data, laboratory results and the findings of the available other imaging modalities. Patients and Methods The present study retrospectively included 83 patients, with signs and symptoms denoting hepatic and pancreatobiliary abnormalities, who underwent paired radiological examination using US and MRI. MRCP examinations are coronal 3D fast spin-echo HR MRCP sequence, as well as axial and coronal T2-weighted fast spin-echo and fat-suppressed sequence images, axial DWI using a multi-slice single-shot echo-planar imaging sequence and ADC maps in gray scale. Agreement between US and MRI was done as regards identification of individual radiological abnormalities, diagnostic accuracy of US vs. MRI as gold-standard modality for detection of IHBRD and EHBRD was tested, and also diagnostic accuracy of US and MRI versus final (gold-standard) diagnosis was calculated. Result MRCP was found to have significantly higher diagnostic accuracy when compared to ultrasound (90.2%, 41.0%) respectively, especially in detection of pancreatic lesions (p-value <0.0001). Although there was good agreement between US and MR as regards detection of IHBRD and EHBRD, it was found that the US had a sensitivity of 69%, specificity of 90%, predictive value of positive test of 81%, predictive value of negative test of 82% for diagnosis of IHBRD and had sensitivity of 64%, specificity of 100%, predictive value of positive test of 100%, predictive value of negative test of 81%, when contrasted versus MRI as the gold-standard test. Conclusion MRCP have a higher diagnostic accuracy compared to US in detecting various hepatic and pancreatobiliary disease in children, especially in diagnosis of pancreatic diseases.