Role of Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) as a diagnostic aid in various Pancreaticobiliary tract pathologies

Abstract

Introduction: MRCP (Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography) has rapidly gained ground and has now firmly established its role in the evaluation of the biliary and pancreatic ducts. It often aids in the assessment of causes of biliary obstruction and can be helpful in the evaluation of the pancreatic duct without the inherent invasiveness of an endoscopic procedure.Material and Methods: This is a prospective, observational and descriptive study conducted in the Department of Radiodiagnosis, Subbaiah Institute of Medical Sciences and a tertiary care hospital over a period of 1 year. The patients presented with one or more of the following signs and symptoms: jaundice, acute or intermittent biliary colic with or without fever and postoperative or post-traumatic complaints. Few patients were assessed preoperatively as being living donors for hepatic transplantation. Result: In the present study, a total of 65 patients were included out of which 41 (63.0%) were males and 24 (36.9%) were females. In our study, most of the patients were 51-70 years i.e., 36 out of 65 (55.4%), followed by 31-50 years, i.e., 19 out of 65 (29.2%). In our 65 cases, Cholelithiasis was the most common cause with 21 (32.3%) cases, choledocholithiasis was the second most common cause with 10 (15.4%) cases, followed by stricture with 9 (13.8%) cases, cholecystitis with 5 (7.7%) cases, periampullary carcinoma with 2 (3.1%) cases, cholangiocarcinoma with 4 (6.2%) cases, choledochal cyst and cholangitic abscess with 4 (6.2%) cases and 1 (1.5%) case respectively. Conclusion: Our study confirms that MRCP, a non-invasive, non-ionizing procedure and well tolerated imaging technique is of immense value in aiding the diagnosis of various Pancreaticobiliary tract pathologies.