RESEARCH ARTICLE Prevalence of Incidental Pancreatic Cysts on 3 Tesla Magnetic Resonance

Objectives To ascertain the prevalence of pancreatic cysts detected incidentally on 3-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the abdomen and correlate this prevalence with patient age and gender; assess the number, location, and size of these lesions, as well as features sus-picious for malignancy; and determine the prevalence of incidentally detected dilatation of the main pancreatic duct (MPD). Methods Retrospective analysis of 2,678 reports of patients who underwent abdominal MRI between January 2012 and June 2013. Patients with a known history of pancreatic conditions or sur-gery were excluded, and the remaining 2,583 reports were examined for the presence of pancreatic cysts, which was then correlated with patient age and gender. We also assessed whether cysts were solitary or multiple, as well as their location within the pancreatic paren-chyma, size, and features suspicious for malignancy. Finally, we calculated the prevalence of incidental MPD dilatation, defined as MPD diameter 2.5 mm