Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography: a new technique for evaluating the biliary tract and pancreatic duct.

Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography (MRCP) represents a new development in MR technology that provides a noninvasive accurate means of evaluating the biliary tree and pancreatic duct. Recent technical refinements that allow for imaging of the entire biliary tree and pancreatic duct in 18 seconds make this examination easily performed even in critically ill patients. The clinical applications of MRCP are illustrated in a variety of scenarios that include choledocholithiasis, malignant obstruction, incomplete/failed endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatographies (ERCPs), postsurgical alterations of the biliary tract and gastrointestinal tract such as biliary-enteric anastomoses, intrahepatic bile duct pathology such as sclerosing cholangitis and AIDS cholangiopathy, chronic pancreatitis, congenital anomalies of the biliary tract and pancreatic duct, and gallbladder pathology.