Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has recently been shown to be an effective means of determining how much fat is present in the pancreas. This method has now been reported as a potential clinical tool to identify those individuals that are a t high risk of developing diabetes.
"These are very early results, but if they hold true, pancreatic MRS would be a fast and noninvasive test to screen people at risk for diabetes either because they're obese or they have a family history of type 2 diabetes, or metabolic syndrome," said Dr. Ildiko Lingvay, assistant professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern and lead author of the study. "It could potentially tell physicians which patients are most likely to develop diabetes in the near future and thus are in need of more aggressive interventions."
MRS is a specialized technique similar to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It uses no radiation and is completely noninvasive. The test generally takes 20 to 30 minutes. Whereas an MRI can tell clinicians where a tumor is located, MRS can tell those physicians whether the tumor is malignant by providing biochemical information about specific tissues in the body rather than simply detecting the existence of those tissues, Dr. Lingvay said.
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