Current Trends and Developments in Radiologic Assessment of Chronic Pancreatitis

Imaging of the pancreas in chronic pancreatitis (CP) has become increasingly valuable. This is driven by increased clinical focus on diagnosis, grading, and monitoring of CP, together with technical advancements. This review provides insights into routine radiological imaging of CP, current research trends and future directions in advanced CP imaging techniques, and finally developments in advanced image analysis.

Current routine imaging, using computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound, plays a major role in diagnosing, staging, and monitoring of CP. Each modality has strengths and limitations, and the use often depends on local practice and expertise. In clinical research, there is a clear trend towards the use of advanced imaging techniques that focus on identifying non-invasive biomarkers representing the underlying pancreatic pathophysiology. Several primarily MRI-based techniques show great promise in especially detecting early stages of CP. Regarding advanced image analysis, there is a trend towards using artificial intelligence with automated pancreas segmentation, extraction of radiomic features, and classification algorithms. These advancements have the potential to identify improved imaging biomarkers for CP.

Overall, new advances within radiological pancreatic imaging and image analysis may be a significant contributor to improving the management of CP patients.