Low-field (0.08 T) magnetic resonance imaging of the pancreas: comparison with computed tomography and ultrasound.

Seventy-four patients referred for computed tomography (CT) and ultrasound examination with a presumptive diagnosis of pancreatic disease have been studied using a low-field (0.08 T) magnetic resonance (MR) imaging instrument. A further 50 patients being examined for non-pancreatic disease were also examined to assess the appearances of the normal pancreas. All the MR examinations were performed using an interleaved saturation-recovery/short inversion time (TI) inversion-recovery sequence. Part or all of the pancreas was seen in 96% of normal cases. In inflammatory disease, MR was more accurate than either CT or ultrasound for diagnosis, whilst for the demonstration of pancreatic tumours, MR was found to be no better or worse than either CT or ultrasound. The use of specific T1 measurement for soft-tissue characterization was not useful because of the large overlap in values between normal, inflamed and malignant pancreatic tissue. T1 measurement was found to be useful in differentiating different pathological fluids.