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• Original Articles •
Prospective randomized controlled animal intervention study on multi-dimensional characterization of microcirculation and tissue heterogeneity in rat acute pancreatitis based on Multi-parametric MRI
GONG Yan  ZHANG Rui  DOU Ruixin  GAO Feng  LI Sicong  WANG Qiujing  ZHANG Xiang 

Cite this article as: GONG Y, ZHANG R, DOU R X, et al. Prospective randomized controlled animal intervention study on multi-dimensional characterization of microcirculation and tissue heterogeneity in rat acute pancreatitis based on Multi-parametric MRI[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2026, 17(3): 78-84. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.03.011.


[Abstract] Objective Traditional imaging techniques provide limited diagnostic information regarding microcirculatory impairment and inflammatory burden in acute pancreatitis (AP). This study aimed to establish a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based approach to characterize pancreatic injury in a rat model of AP. The predictive performance of contrast enhancement ratio (CR) and histogram parameters (Skewness and Kurtosis) was evaluated. In addition, we assessed whether these imaging biomarkers could sensitively capture the therapeutic effects of emodin in vivo.Materials and Methods Forty-five Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly assigned to the control (CN) group, an AP group and an emodin-treated (ET) group (n = 15 per group). Using 3.0 T MRI to obtain enhanced T1WI images, and measuring the contrast ratio (CR), Skewness and Kurtosis of the images. At the same time, detecting the levels of serum amylase, lipase and creatinine, conducting histological scoring (HS), and determining the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). Spearman rank correlation and multivariate regression analyses were conducted to determine the associations between imaging biomarkers and pathological criteria. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the performance of the imaging-based predictive model for AP severity.Results Compared with CN group, AP rats exhibited distinct MRI features characterized by an increase of CR and Skewness (both P < 0.001), along with decreased Kurtosis (P < 0.05). The three imaging indicators in the ET group were all improved compared with those in the AP group (P < 0.05), and the differences were statistically significant, approaching the levels of the CN group. Correlation analysis demonstrated that CR was significantly and moderately to highly positively correlated with the positive expression levels of HS and iNOS (ρ = 0.64 to 0.85, P < 0.001), while Kurtosis was significantly negatively correlated with HS (ρ = -0.84, P < 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis demonstrated that CR was independently associated with HS and iNOS expression (β = 6.69, P < 0.05), whereas Kurtosis was negatively associated with HS (β = -2.56, P < 0.001). The combined CR and Kurtosis model achieved an AUC of 0.95 for predicting severe AP (HS ≥ 12), with an overall accuracy of 89.6%. CR alone yielded an AUC of 0.98 for predicting high iNOS expression.Conclusions CR, Skewness and Kurtosis enable non-invasive quantification of AP-related alterations in perfusion status and tissue heterogeneity. CR primarily reflects perfusion abnormalities, while Kurtosis more accurately indicates tissue heterogeneity. Emodin mitigates pancreatic injury by reducing inflammatory burden and improving microcirculatory perfusion. This multi-parametric MRI workflow provides a reliable imaging-based strategy for grading AP severity and monitoring therapeutic response.
[Keywords] acute pancreatitis；histogram；magnetic resonance imaging；emodin；microcirculation；rats

GONG Yan1, 2   ZHANG Rui1, 2   DOU Ruixin1, 2   GAO Feng1, 2   LI Sicong1, 2   WANG Qiujing1, 2   ZHANG Xiang1, 2*  

1 Department of Radiology, Tianjin Nan Kai Hospital, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300100, China

2 Institute of Integrative Medicine for Acute Abdominal Diseases, Tianjin 300100, China

Corresponding author: ZHANG X, E-mail: zhangxiang1101@126.com

Conflicts of interest   None.

Received  2025-12-19
Accepted  2026-03-09
DOI: 10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.03.011
Cite this article as: GONG Y, ZHANG R, DOU R X, et al. Prospective randomized controlled animal intervention study on multi-dimensional characterization of microcirculation and tissue heterogeneity in rat acute pancreatitis based on Multi-parametric MRI[J]. Chin J Magn Reson Imaging, 2026, 17(3): 78-84. DOI:10.12015/issn.1674-8034.2026.03.011.

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