Diagnostic Advances
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Radiol. Dec 28, 2015; 7(12): 424-437
Published online Dec 28, 2015. doi: 10.4329/wjr.v7.i12.424
Various diffusion magnetic resonance imaging techniques for pancreatic cancer
Meng-Yue Tang, Xiao-Ming Zhang, Tian-Wu Chen, Xiao-Hua Huang
Meng-Yue Tang, Xiao-Ming Zhang, Tian-Wu Chen, Xiao-Hua Huang, Sichuan Key Laboratory of Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Nanchong 637000, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Tang MY, Zhang XM and Chen TW designed research; Tang MY and Huang XH performed research; Tang MY and Zhang XM contributed analytic tools; Tang MY, Zhang XM and Huang XH analyzed data; Tang MY, Zhang XM, Chen TW and Huang XH wrote the paper.
Supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China, No. 81271643.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xiao-Ming Zhang, MD, PhD, Professor, Head, Sichuan Key Laboratory of Medical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College, Wenhua Road 63, Nanchong 637000, Sichuan Province, China. cjr.zhxm@vip.163.com
Telephone: +86-817-2262218 Fax: +86-817-2222856
Received: May 15, 2015
Peer-review started: May 20, 2015
First decision: September 8, 2015
Revised: September 15, 2015
Accepted: November 13, 2015
Article in press: November 17, 2015
Published online: December 28, 2015
Processing time: 226 Days and 11 Hours
Abstract

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors and remains a treatment-refractory cancer with a poor prognosis. Currently, the diagnosis of pancreatic neoplasm depends mainly on imaging and which methods are conducive to detecting small lesions. Compared to the other techniques, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has irreplaceable advantages and can provide valuable information unattainable with other noninvasive or minimally invasive imaging techniques. Advances in MR hardware and pulse sequence design have particularly improved the quality and robustness of MRI of the pancreas. Diffusion MR imaging serves as one of the common functional MRI techniques and is the only technique that can be used to reflect the diffusion movement of water molecules in vivo. It is generally known that diffusion properties depend on the characterization of intrinsic features of tissue microdynamics and microstructure. With the improvement of the diffusion models, diffusion MR imaging techniques are increasingly varied, from the simplest and most commonly used technique to the more complex. In this review, the various diffusion MRI techniques for pancreatic cancer are discussed, including conventional diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), multi-b DWI based on intra-voxel incoherent motion theory, diffusion tensor imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging. The principles, main parameters, advantages and limitations of these techniques, as well as future directions for pancreatic diffusion imaging are also discussed.

Keywords: Pancreatic cancer; Magnetic resonance imaging; Diffusion; Diffusion weighted imaging; Diffusion tensor imaging; Diffusion kurtosis imaging

Core tip: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has irreplaceable advantages and can provide valuable information unattainable with other noninvasive or minimally invasive imaging techniques. Diffusion MR imaging serves as one of the common functional MRI techniques and is the only technique that can be used to reflect the diffusion movement of water molecules in vivo. In this review, the various diffusion MR imaging techniques for pancreatic cancer will be discussed, including conventional diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), multi-b DWI based on intra-voxel incoherent motion theory, diffusion tensor imaging and diffusion kurtosis imaging.