[New possibilities to study biliary tree and gallbladder: functional magnetic resonance cholangiography...

Mangafodipir trisodium (Teslascan) is a hepatobiliary contrast agent that provides noninvasive opacification of the bile ducts. Using this contrast medium combined with a T1-weighted gradient echo enhanced sequence provides functional imaging of the bile ducts. Second-intention MRI was obtained after the usual morphological study of the bile ducts using heavily T2-weighted sequences (SS-FSE Te eff long and SS FSE Te eff short). This method can detect many biliary duct anomalies: biliary leakage in the postoperative context, mapping of bile ducts and the gallbladder in the search for anatomical variants, analysis of biliodigestive or biliobiliary anastomoses, or a dynamic study of bile secretion and excretion. Opacification of the bile ducts has only been possible until now with invasive tests aggravated by a certain co-morbidity rate and their functional study using biliary scintigraphy limited by mediocre spatial resolution. This new possibility provides access not only to morphological imaging, but also to functional imaging with excellent spatial resolution.