A.Daghfous *, F. AbidI *, K. Bouzaid **, M. Maarouf *, L. Rezgui Marhoul *

1. Magneticresonnancecholangiography (MRC): comparaison of two and three-dimensionalsequences for assessment of biliary anomalies A.Daghfous*, F. AbidI*, K. Bouzaid**, M. Maarouf*, L. RezguiMarhoul* Radiology services in Trauma Center*, Tunisia and TaherMaamouri’shospital**, Nabeul GI29

2. INTRODUCTION • Three-dimensional (3D) imaging has become a popular modality because of its ability to provide 3D views of the patient's anatomy. It also does not have many of the inherent shortcomings of two-dimensional (2D) imaging. • Two-dimensional images make interpretation more difficult by forcing the reader to restructure the 2D images mentally in order to appreciate the true form of the disease or organ. Three-dimensional images, on the other hand, provide easier-to-understand information, while being more efficient, accurate, objective, and reproducible

3. OBJECTIVES The purposewas to retrospectively compare two-dimensional (2D) magneticresonnance cholangiography (MRC) includingbreath-hold single-shotrapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) and multislicehalf-fourrier RARE versus 3D-RARE MRC in the evaluation of biliary anomalies.

4. MATERIALSANDMETHODS • Retrospectivestudy • 20 adult patients whounderwent MRC • for pancreatic or bile ductabnormalitiesdetected by ultra • sound or CT-scan. • Our protocolincludesconventionnalsequences and • systematicsequences 2D and 3D-MRC thin sections.

5. RESULTS • MRC findingsincluding lithiasis (n=11), biliarymalignancy • (n=5), gallbladercarcinoma (n=1), ampullary cancer (n=2), • congenitalabnormality of bilaryduct (n=1). • All of these bile tract abnormalitieswere visible on the 2D • sequences, however, with the 3D sequences, the picture • qualitywasmuchhigherwithbetter spatial resolution

6. Example 1 A B C D Cholangio-MRI: 2D (A and B) and 3D séquences (Cet D) Choledolithiasis ( ) and galdbladdercalculi ( )

7. Ax T1 gado Example 2 MRC 2D MRC 3D Dilatation of intra hepatic bile ductsecondary to hilarcholangiocarcinoma ( ) without dilatation of the wirsung ( ) and the main bile duct ( )

8. Example 3 AX T2 MRC 2D MRC 3D Cystic dilatation of pancreaticducts( ) relevant to TIPMP

9. Example 4 T1G T2 MRC 2D MRC 2D MRC 3D Hilarcholangiocarcinoma ( ) MR cholangiography demonstrates dilatation of intra hepatic bile ducts( ) Withoutvisualization of the main bile duct

10. Example 5 MRC 2D MRC 3D Ax T2 Carolidisease MRC demonstratescystic dilatation of main bile duct and intra hepaticducts relevant to Carolidisease

11. Example 6 Ax T2 Ax T2 MRC 3D MRC demonstrates dilatation of main bile duct and intra hepaticductssecondary to ampullomavaterien ( ) MRC 2D

12. DISCUSSION *In our study, 2D-MRC and 3D-MRC showed Similar diagnostic accuracy in patients with biliary diseases. Although 3D-MRC had the tendency to show higher accuracy compared with 2D MRC: it did display superior image quality and ductal conspicuity compared with 2DMRC. *Magneticresonnance (MR) cholangiography has emerged as an accurate, non invasive alternative to diagnostic endoscopic retrogradecholangiography (ERC) in the evaluation of disease of the biliary tract.

13. DISCUSSION * Two-dimensionalthick-section single-shotRARE and multislice thin-section half-Fourier RARE techniques are the most commonly used techniques for MRC. The 2D thick-section technique has the major advantage of allowing a quick acquisition of an image giving an overview of the ductal anatomy. * The limitation of the thick-section technique, however, is the lack of postprocessing, preventing the evaluation of individual tomographic sections. Therefore, thick-section technique alone is not suitable for the evaluation of complex anatomical structures like the hepatic hilum.

14. * Currently, most institutes perform MRC using a combination of thicksection imaging to provide an anatomical overview and thin-section imaging to provide finer detail. * The major advantage of 3D-MRC is that it provides isotropic MIP images without distortion allowing its usage as a complementary sequence tostandard 2D-MRC in the evaluation of the biliary tree. * Three-dimensional acquisition is appealing for MRC because it provides contiguous thin sections (approximately1 mm in all three dimensions) that may be used to reconstruct images in any plane.

15. * Volumetric acquisition of 3D-MRC has been used to improve the quality of MIP reconstruction using a variety of software to depict complexbiliaryductalrelationships * 3D-MRC has a higher technical and overall image quality than 2D-MRC,there is still a limitation in improving the diagnostic performance for evaluating all biliary diseases. Nevertheless, high quality MIP reconstructions are very useful because they improve theunderstanding of complex anatomical structures such as the hepatic hilum by selecting the optimal viewing angle. * Two major disadvantages of 3D-MRC are its long acquisition time and high level of background suppression which lead to low anatomical information regarding underlyingparenchymal organs

16. CONCLUSION • 3D-MRC has superior image quality to 2D-MRC. • 3D-MRC showed no difference in accuracy compared with • 2D-MRC for evaluating the biliary diseases. • 3D-MRC should be a complementary sequence to • conventional 2D-MRC for the accurate evaluation of the • biliarytree.