Nonendocrine Tumors of the Pancreas

Abstract

Current magnetic resonance (MR) techniques have been shown to be effective at imaging the pancreas and evaluating pancreatic diseases. These techniques include: (a) breath-hold spoiled gradient echo, which avoids phase artifact caused by respiration and peristalsis, (b) T1-weighted fat-suppressed spoiled gradient echo or spin echo, which removes chemical shift artifact and improves the dynamic range of the intra-abdominal tissue signal intensities, (c) immediate postgadolinium spoiled gradient echo, which maximizes contrast between tumor and pancreas, and (d) single shot T2-weighted echo train spin echo [e.g., half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin echo (HASTE)], which evaluates the caliber of the common bile and pancreatic ducts and assesses the complexity of pseudocyst fluid composition. These techniques are generally most reliable at ≥1.0T. T2-weighted fat-suppressed spin-echo imaging is useful to improve the conspicuity of high signal intensity masses such as islet cell tumors, or for detection of associated liver metastases (SEMELKA and ASCHER 1993; SEMELKA et al. 1990, 1991b, 1993; CHEZMAR et al. 1991).