T₁ρ Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting in Patients With Chronic Pancreatitis

Noninvasive detection of chronic pancreatitis (CP) is important for proper treatment and prevention of severe pain and pancreatic insufficiency.

To evaluate if T₁ρ MRF is significantly different in healthy volunteers and patients with CP.

Prospective.

Seventeen healthy volunteers (9 male, mean age: 38.0 ± 6.7 years) and 20 patients (12 male, mean age: 53.6 ± 6.4 years) who were clinically diagnosed with CP.

3 T, T₁ρ MRF acquired during breath-hold (BH-MRF) and free breathing (FB-MRF), conventional T₁/T₂ mapping sequences.

Mean T₁/T₂/T₁ρ values in the whole pancreas were compared between diagnosed CP patients and controls. The Cambridge classification (CC) score was used to divide patients into mild-moderate (CC = 1-3) and severe (CC = 4) CP subgroups. T₁, T₂, and T₁ρ relaxation maps were generated from both breath-hold (BH) and free-breathing (FB) MRF data.

Mixed effects models were calculated for healthy control versus CP, and between mild-moderate and severe CP. Receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves were analyzed and areas under the curves (AUCs) were calculated. A p-value < 0.05 was considered significant and multiple comparison corrections were applied.

BH-MRF T₁/T₂/T₁ρ values were significantly higher in the CP group (1327.3, 48.6, 49.1 ms) compared to healthy controls (821.6, 41.6, 39.5 ms) with AUCs of 0.994, 0.873, and 0.862, respectively. The MRF BH T₁/T₂/T₁ρ values of mild-moderate CP (N = 7) and severe CP (N = 13) patients were also significantly higher compared to healthy controls. T₁ was significantly higher in severe CP compared to mild-moderate CP (1497 and 1012.1 ms, respectively) with AUC = 0.945. FB MRF T₁ relaxation times demonstrated good correlation with BH values (0.981), while T₂ and T₁ρ had moderate correlations (0.507 and 0.697, respectively).

T₁, T₂, and T₁ρ relaxation times have potential for noninvasively assessing CP.

2.

Stage 2.