Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography in diagnosis of biliary disorders in children-sharing our experience

Objective: to evaluate the role of magnetic resonance cholangio-pancreatography in the diagnosis of biliary disorders in children. methods: the retrospective study was conducted at aga khan university hospital,karachi,and comprised data related to the period between august 2005 and december 2013.all children from age of 1 day to 17 years who had undergone magnetic rasonance cholangio-pancreatography examination for suspected pancreaticobiliary disorders were included. clinical presentation,magnetic rasonance cholangio-pancreatography findings,operative findings and histopathological results were recorded. sensitivity and specificity of magnetic rasonance cholangiopancreatography for different diseases was worked out. results: of the 50 patients in the study,12(24%) showed findings of choledochal cyst. of these patients,11(91.6%) underwent surgery and operative findings were consistent with choledochal cyst. only 1(8.3%) who was assessed as biliary atresia was found to have choledochal cyst on surgery magnetic resonance cholangio-pancreatography was found to be 91% sensitive and 100% specific for diagnosis of choledochal cyst with diagnostic accuracy of 98%. conclusion: magnetic resonance cholangio-pancreatography is a very accurate non-invasive investigation for the diagnosis of biliary disorders. © 2016,pakistan medical association. all rights reserved.