Enhancing the diagnostic capabilities of MRCP by high-resolution image acquisition and stereoscopic viewing

摘要

Though magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) is one of the most useful modalities, its capability for precise and realistic description of the biliary system has been inferior to endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP). Current MR scanner's spatial resolution of MRCP has become remarkably improved. However, it is time consuming and unpractical to read HR image data as a series of pictures on plain films. This presentation is to show that the combination of HR data and stereoscopic viewing leads to a decisive increase of speed and diagnostic value of MRCP. The source HR-MRCP data (slice-thickness: 0.8mm, gapless, total 250-270 slices by coronal scanning) of healthy volunteers were obtained by fast spin-echo sequences (TR/ 1639, TE/ 900) with a breath-triggering. A Philips Gyroscan Intera MR scanner (1.5T) was used. Creation of the stereoscopic maximum intensity projection (MIP) on a PC was performed by VOXEL-MAN system developed at Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science in Medicine (IMDM), Hamburg, Germany. The benefit for film-reading and the capabilities for clinical application were then compared with conventional MRCP.