MN-DPDP IN MR IMAGING OF PANCREATIC ADENOCARCINOMA - INITIAL CLINICAL-EXPERIENCE

Manganese (II) N, N'-dipyridoxylethylenediamine-N, N'-diacetate 5,5'-bis(phosphate) (DPDP) was tested as a contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging of pancreatic adenocarcinoma in 15 patients. At enhanced T1-weighted spin-echo (SE) and enhanced T1-weighted gradient-echo (GRE) imaging, statistically significant increases in signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) for the pancreas (21% and 92%, respectively) and contrast-to-noise ratio (C/N) (91% and 209%, respectively) were found. The C/N at enhanced T1-weighted SE imaging was superior to that at unenhanced imaging, including T2-weighted SE imaging (P = .001). Subjective image analysis showed that delineation of the pancreas and pancreatic tumors was clearly improved (P = .05) on enhanced T1-weighted SE and GRE images compared with on unenhanced T1- and T2-weighted images. The liver enhanced 19% at T1-weighted SE imaging and 90% at T1-weighted GRE imaging. There was a significantly higher S/N increase in hepatic parenchyma than in pancreatic tissue at enhanced T1-weighted GRE imaging (P = .0026) but not at enhanced T1-weighted SE imaging.