Pancreatic parenchymal phase

Fig. 30.1a-c. Pancreatic adenocarcinoma superior tumor delineation in the pancreatic parenchymal phase, a MRCP reveals stenosis of the distal CBD (arrow) with massive biliary dilatation, suggestive of tumor, b Contrast-enhanced in the CT in the pancreatic phase revels a low-density mass in the uncinate process (arrows), acljacent to the biliary plastic stent in situ, indicative of pancreatic cancer. A hypodense mass is a direct sign of tumor at CT. c In the venous-phase CT image, the lesion is not discernible... 

In the helical CT era, a fixed scan delay for the pancreatic parenchymal phase of 40 s was recommended. With an acquisition time of approximately 20 s for a helical scan of the pancreas, good enhancement of the pancreas was guaranteed for most of the patients. However, with the evolution of MDCT scanners, which has considerably shorted the acquisition time of a pancreatic CT scan to not more than 3-5 s for modern scanners, a fixed scan delay may be suboptimal to catch the phase of maximum enhancement. Schueller et al. (2006) compared fixed scan delays of 40 s with an individual scan delay... 

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