Pancreatic adenocarcinoma: dynamic 64-slice helical CT with perfusion imaging

Perfusion CT is able to outline blood perfusion changes in a tissue. Thus, in lesions of the tissues of the pancreas, this offers to increase the accuracy of CT diagnosis. In this study, our aim was to explore the perfusion characteristics of normal pancreas and pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Dynamic 64-slice helical CT was conducted in 36 patients with non-pancreatic disease and in 40 patients with histopathologically proven pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Perfusion parameters including blood flow (BF), blood volume (BV), and permeability surface area product (PS) were recorded.

There was no significant difference noted between the distribution of BF, BV, and PS values in different regions of the pancreas, namely the head, neck, body, and tail (P > 0.05). The BF, BV, and PS of normal pancreas were recorded as 135.24 +/- 48.36 ml min(-1) 100 g(-1), 200.55 +/- 54.96 ml 100 g(-1), and 49.75 +/- 24.27 ml min(-1) 100 g(-1), respectively. BF, BV, and PS values of the tumor tissue of pancreatic adenocarcinoma decreased significantly compared to normal pancreas (P < 0.05).

Normal pancreas appears homogenous on perfusion CT. A significant decrease of BF, BV, and PS was observed in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Dynamic 64-slice helical CT with perfusion imaging should be considered a potential modality to increase the accuracy of CT diagnosis for pancreatic adenocarcinoma.