Diagnosis of anatomic variants of the biliary tree by MRCP

ABSTRACT

Background: Magnetic resonance pancreatography (MRCP) is a safe noninvasive imaging technique that has proven to be accurate in the diagnosis of biliary tract diseases. Objective: To evaluate the role of MRCP in diagnosis of the anatomic variants of the biliary tree. Subjects and method: A retrospective study (from Augusts 2003 to April 2006, at Gia Dinh People Hospital) was conducted in 147 MRCP. All of anatomic variants of the biliary tract were classified. Results: MRCP had the sensitivity of 85.1%, the specificity of 92.1%, and the accuracy of 89.2%. Anatomic variants of the biliary tract included: type I (65%), type II (33.6%), type III (0%), type IV (1.4%). The anatomic variants of extrahepatic biliary tract that had high risk of damaged bile duct during laparoscopic cholecystectomy such as ectopic of right posterior hepatic duct (18.2%) and abnormal of junction of cystic duct and hepatic commune bile duct (2.9 - 44.6%). Conclusions: In this study, MRCP showed the modality of choices in the evaluation of hepatobiliary diseases and the anatomic variants of the biliary tree. MRCP helped the surgeons to avoid the injury of bile ducts during the operations.