Thomas C. Lauenstein1,2, Bobby Kalb2, Juan Sarmiento3, Khalil Salman2, Volkan Adsay4, Diego R. Martin2
1Radiology, University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany; 2Radiology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; 3Surgery, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA; 4Pathology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA
We aimed to determine whether the degree of enhancement of pancreatic adenocarcinoma visualized on arterial phase gadolinium-enhanced MRI correlates with the histopathological tumor grade. Thirty-nine patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma had MRI within 14 days prior to tumor resection. Based on histological grading there were 12 poorly differentiated, 2 poorly-to-moderately differentiated, 22 moderately differentiated and 3 well-differentiated adenocarcinomas. There was agreement between the MRI arterial enhancement pattern and histology in 30 of the 39 cases. Although minor discordance was found in 9 of 39 cases, statistical analysis showed agreement between the degree of arterial enhancement on MRI and histological tumor differentiation.