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Comparison of diagnostic performance between CT and MRI in differentiating non-diffuse-type autoimmune pancreatitis from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

  • Hepatobiliary-Pancreas
  • Published:
European Radiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

To intraindividually compare the diagnostic performance of CT and MRI in differentiating non-diffuse-type autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP) from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA).

Methods

Sixty-one patients with non-diffuse-type AIP and 122 patients with PDA, who underwent dynamic contrast-enhanced CT and MRI with MR pancreatography, were included. Two blinded radiologists independently rated their confidence in differentiating the two diseases on a 5-point scale, and the diagnostic performances of CT and MRI were compared. The presence of key imaging features to differentiate AIP and PDA were compared between CT and MRI.

Results

The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was significantly greater on MRI (0.993–0.995) than on CT (0.953–0.976) for both raters (p≤0.035). The sensitivities of MRI were higher than those of CT for the diagnosis of AIP (88.5–90.2% vs. 77–80.3%, p≤0.07) and PDA (97.5–99.2% vs. 91.8–94.3%, p≤0.031) for both raters, although the difference for AIP was statistically marginal (p=0.07) for rater 1. In AIP, multiple pancreatic masses, delayed homogeneous enhancement of the pancreatic mass, and multiple main pancreatic duct (MPD) strictures were observed significantly more frequently using MRI than CT (p≤0.008). In PDA, discrete pancreatic mass and MPD stricture were observed significantly more frequently using MRI than CT (p≤0.012).

Conclusions

The diagnostic performance of MRI is better for differentiating non-diffuse-type AIP from PDA, which is due to the superiority of MRI over CT in demonstrating the key distinguishing features of both diseases.

Key Points

• Imaging differential diagnosis of non-diffuse-type AIP and PDA is challenging.

• MRI has better diagnostic performance than CT in differentiating non-diffuse-type AIP from PDA.

• MRI is superior to CT in demonstrating key distinguishing features of non-diffuse-type AIP and PDA.

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Abbreviations

AIP:

Autoimmune pancreatitis

IgG:

Immunoglobulin G

MPD:

Main pancreatic duct

MRP:

Magnetic resonance pancreatography

PDA:

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

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The authors state that this work has not received any funding.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology and Research Institute of Radiology, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-Gu, Seoul, 05505, Korea

    Sunyoung Lee, Jin Hee Kim, So Yeon Kim, Jae Ho Byun, Hyoung Jung Kim, Moon-Gyu Lee & Seung Soo Lee

  2. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, 88 Olympic-ro 43-gil, Songpa-Gu, Seoul, 05505, Korea

    Myung-Hwan Kim

Authors
  1. Sunyoung Lee
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  2. Jin Hee Kim
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  3. So Yeon Kim
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  4. Jae Ho Byun
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  7. Moon-Gyu Lee
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  8. Seung Soo Lee
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Correspondence to Jin Hee Kim.

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The scientific guarantor of this publication is Jin Hee Kim.

Conflict of interest

The authors of this article declare no relationships with any companies whose products or services may be related to the subject matter of the article.

Statistics and biometry

No complex statistical methods were necessary for this paper.

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Written informed consent was waived by the Institutional Review Board.

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Institutional Review Board approval was obtained.

Methodology

• retrospective

• observational

• performed at one institution

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Lee, S., Kim, J.H., Kim, S.Y. et al. Comparison of diagnostic performance between CT and MRI in differentiating non-diffuse-type autoimmune pancreatitis from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Eur Radiol 28, 5267–5274 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5565-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-018-5565-1

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