Role of abdominal ultrasound for the surveillance follow-up of pancreatic cystic neoplasms: a cost-effective safe alternative to the routine use of magnetic resonance imaging

Figure 1 The two follow-up strategies comprising the standard magnetic resonance imaging vs non-conventional abdominal US surveillance. US: Ultrasound; PCN: Pancreatic cyst neoplasms.

Figure 2 Development of new pancreatic cyst neoplasms as new anechoic areas into the pancreatic parenchyma detected by conventional ultrasound.

Figure 3 Receiver operating characteristic analysis showing the accuracy of ultrasound in the follow-up respect to gold standard magnetic resonance imaging performed 2 year after diagnosis vs those performed “on demand” during the follow-up.

Figure 4 The box-plot graph showing the statistical difference between the overall cost for MRI alone and US-restricted MRI surveillance follow-up. US: Ultrasound; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging.