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World J Methodol. Sep 26, 2017; 7(3): 101-107
Published online Sep 26, 2017. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v7.i3.101
Pancreatic imaging: Current status of clinical practices and small animal studies
Ting Yin, Yewei Liu, Ronald Peeters, Yuanbo Feng, Yicheng Ni
Ting Yin, Yewei Liu, Ronald Peeters, Yuanbo Feng, Yicheng Ni, Department of Imaging and Pathology, Biomedical Sciences Group, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Yicheng Ni, Department of Radiology, University Hospitals, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
Author contributions: Ni Y set up the format and the frame of this mini-review article, and final approval of the manuscript; Yin T wrote and edited the manuscript; Peeters R approved sections related to MRI techniques and edited the manuscript; Liu Y and Feng Y provided suggestions regarding to clinical aspects.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
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: Yicheng Ni, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Radiology, University Hospitals, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. yicheng.ni@med.kuleuven.be
Telephone: +32-16-330165 Fax: +32-16-343765
Received: July 14, 2017
Peer-review started: July 17, 2017
First decision: August 4, 2017
Revised: August 22, 2017
Accepted: September 3, 2017
Article in press: September 4, 2017
Published online: September 26, 2017
Processing time: 70 Days and 13.6 Hours
Abstract

Different causative factors acting on the pancreas can result in diseases such as pancreatitis, diabetes and pancreatic tumors. The high incidence and mortality of pancreatic diseases have placed diagnostic imaging in a crucial position in daily clinical practice. In this mini-review article different pancreatic imaging techniques are discussed, from the standard clinical imaging modalities and state of the art clinical magnetic resonance imaging techniques to current situations in pre-clinical pancreatic imaging studies. In particular, the challenges of pre-clinical rodent pancreatic imaging are addressed, with both the image acquisition techniques and the post-processing methods for rodent pancreatic imaging elaborated.

Keywords: Pancreatic imaging; Rats; State of the art clinical magnetic resonance imaging; 3.0T scanner; Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging

Core tip: In this minireview, the challenges of pre-clinical rodent pancreatic imaging are addressed, basic clinical magnetic resonance imaging techniques and post-processing methods for rodent pancreatic imaging are also elaborated.