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Imaging evaluation of the pancreas in diabetic patients

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Abstract

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is becoming a global epidemic and its diagnosis and monitoring are based on laboratory testing which sometimes have limitations. The pancreas plays a key role in metabolism and is involved in the pathogenesis of DM. It has long been known through cadaver biopsies that pancreas volume is decreased in patients with DM. With the development of different imaging modalities over the last two decades, many studies have attempted to determine whether there other changes occurred in the pancreas of diabetic patients. This review summarizes current knowledge about the use of different imaging approaches (such as CT, MR, and US) and radiomics for exploring pancreatic changes in diabetic patients. Imaging studies are expected to produce reliable information regarding DM, and radiomics could provide increasingly valuable information to identify some undetectable features and help diagnose and predict the occurrence of diabetes through pancreas imaging.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Prof. Qiang Lu for providing ultrasound imaging.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Alley, Chengdu, 610041, Sichuan, China

    Ni Zeng, Yi Wang, Yue Cheng, Zixing Huang & Bin Song

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  1. Ni Zeng
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  2. Yi Wang
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  3. Yue Cheng
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  4. Zixing Huang
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  5. Bin Song
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Contributions

Ni Zeng conducted the literature search and wrote the review. Yi Wang and Yue Cheng contributed to acquisition of radiology images. Zixing Huang and Bin Song contributed to conception of the study and revised the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zixing Huang or Bin Song.

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Zeng, N., Wang, Y., Cheng, Y. et al. Imaging evaluation of the pancreas in diabetic patients. Abdom Radiol 47, 715–726 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00261-021-03340-0

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