OBJECTIVETo compare the value of liver acquisition with volume acceleration (LAVA) and magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) in diagnosing benign and malignant intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN) of the pancreas.

METHODSThe MR findings of 35 IPMN patients confirmed by pathology were analyzed retrospectively, and the sequences included T1WI, T2WI, LAVA, and MRCP. All patients were divided into two groups: the group of MRI enhancement (including T1WI, T2WI, and MRI enhancement) and the group of MRCP (including T1WI, T2WI, and MRCP). Two groups were evaluated by the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

RESULTSTotally 23 cases of intraductal papillary mucinous tumors and 12 cases of intraductal papillary mucinous carcinomas were diagnosed. Finally, 29 cases (29/35) of IPMN were diagnosed correctly in the group of MR enhancement, and 25 cases (25/35) diagnosed correctly in the group of MRCP. The differential diagnostic accuracy of the group of MRI enhancement (82.9%) was higher than that of the group of MRCP (71.4%), although the difference was not statistically significant (P=0.068). The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC) of the group of MRI enhancement were 83.3%, 82.6%, 71.4%, and 0.850, and those of the group of MRCP were 75.0%, 69.6%, 52.3%, and 0.723. The AUC of the group of MRI enhancement was significantly larger than that of the group of MRCP (P=0.0465).

CONCLUSIONMRI enhancement is more valuable than MRCP in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant IPMN.