Açai juice as contrast agent in MRCP exams: qualitative and quantitative image evaluation

Abstract

This works aims to assess images obtained with administration of açai juice as compared to a manufactured standard iron oxide-based contrast employed as negative oral agents in Magnetic Resonance Cholangiopancreatography (MRCP), employing qualitative and quantitative evaluation. The research was developed with 64 patients submitted to MRCP exams (on 2 days) in a clinic of Curitiba city (Brazil). First (day 1), a manufactured iron oxide-based contrast (A) was offered and later (day 2), açai juice (contrast B) was given to patients. Radiologists (R1 and R2) evaluated the images, classifying them by a score (1-4). In order to have a quantitative assessment, Image J free software was employed generating plots of gray levels against distance of a chosen area of the bile duct interest region. Evaluating images for contrast A, R1 furnished an average score of 3.52 and R2 of 3.27. For contrast B, R1 provided 3.44 and R2 3.38. Both evaluators considered image quality with contrast A adequate for 62 patients. R1 considered adequate for 62 and R2 for 60 patients when using açai juice. By taking same images for all patients with Image J, a quantitative analysis was obtained, resulting correlation coefficient of 0.986 between average curves of contrasts A and B. Thus, açai juice is an adequate alternative as contrast agent in MRCP exams. Image J was employed as a new method for quantitative investigation of image quality, presenting good agreement with medical opinion.

Signal suppressions of grape syrup and grape syrup/lemon aqueous solutions in magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography using heavily T2-weighted pulse sequence

“…Various natural substances such as pineapple juice [9], blueberry juice [10], lemon/orange juice [11], date syrup [1], Açai pulp and juice [12,13] black tea [14], and bananas [15] have been investigated for MRCP. The high concentrations of manganese and iron are responsible for the T2 shortening effect of oral negative contrast materials in MRCP [3].…”