Diffusion-weighted MRI of the normal adult pancreas: The effect of age on apparent diffusion coefficient values

Aim: To investigate and characterize the effect of age on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in the normal adult pancreas using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI). Materials and methods: Five hundred and fifty-nine adult patients without pancreatic disease, ranging from 20–81 years of age (mean 50.9 years; 436 men, 123 women), were included in this study. Breath-hold single-shot echo-planar DWI (b-values = 0, 500 s/mm2) was employed to determine the ADCs across all patients. Dependency of ADCs on age was characterized using a Spearman rank-order correlation test. Results: Across the age spectrum, there was no significant correlation between ADC and age (p = 0.409). Conclusion: The findings of the present study suggest that the effect of age on ADCs can be excluded from the diagnosis of pancreatic diseases and design of future studies using breath-hold single-shot DWI and ADCs (as calculated with b-values of 0 and 500 s/mm2)