Pancreatic cysts, including branch-duct intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (BD-IPMN), are commonly encountered on imaging. Such cysts are initially investigated by assessing clinical status, tumour markers and multiphase contrast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP).(1,2) When there are no suspicious features, follow-up is performed with MRCP to assess size change and main pancreatic duct diameter.(2) Various MRCP protocols for follow-up of BD-IPMN are used depending on institutional preferences. For example, some centres use MRCP with contrast-enhanced pancreatic MRI sequences and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)...

Institutional ethics approval obtained for this retrospective single centre study. Our older comprehensive / complete non-contrast MRCP (comp-MRCP) protocol includes several sequences. The abbreviated non-contrast MRCP (abbr-MRCP) protocol omitted DWI and 3D MRCP SPACE sequences from comp-MRCP. Details of sequences included in comp-MRCP and abbr-MRCP protocols are listed in Table 1 and shown in Fig. 1. We conducted a PACS search of non-contrast MRCP studies over an 18-month period from 1/1/2020 to 20/6/2021. Inclusion criteria were - Adults: 18 years or older - Referred for...

Our preliminary search yielded 1260 results. Of which, 294 were repeat scans for 147 different subjects. Seventy-six of these subjects were excluded due to clinical indications other than IPMN follow-up or they failed to contain both abbreviated and complete protocols. Further 44 subjects were excluded as the localiser images were not sent to PACS. A total of 27 subjects with both abbr-MRCP and comp-MRCP (total 54 MRCP studies) were finally included in our study. Twenty-seven included subjects had a mean age of 69.5 years (SD...

An abbreviated non-contrast MRCP protocol for follow-up of pancreatic cysts and IPMN is feasible and reduces imaging time. Evaluation in a larger cohort with long term follow-up is required to ensure such an abbreviated protocol does not result in missed or delayed relevant findings.

1. Megibow AJ, Baker ME, Morgan DE, Kamel IR, Sahani DV, Newman E, Brugge WR, Berland LL, Pandharipande PV. Management of incidental pancreatic cysts: a white paper of the ACR Incidental Findings Committee. Journal of the American College of Radiology. 2017 Jul 1;14(7):911-23. 2. European Study Group on Cystic Tumours of the Pancreas. European evidence-based guidelines on pancreatic cystic neoplasms. Gut. 2018 May 1;67(5):789-804. 3. Canellas R, Rosenkrantz AB, Taouli B, Sala E, Saini S, Pedrosa I, Wang ZJ, Sahani DV. Abbreviated MRI protocols for...