If you have chronic pancreatitis, you know how hard it can be to track what's happening inside your pancreas. This study tested a new imaging tool called the IM-PAC grade, which uses CT and MRI scans to measure how much the pancreas has shrunk.
Researchers reviewed 280 scans from 2023 and found that higher IM-PAC grades strongly matched worse ductal problems and more fibrosis, or scarring, on MRI. The grade also linked to more calcifications on CT scans. The tool showed excellent agreement between different doctors measuring thickness and substantial agreement on the grades themselves.
This was a single-center, retrospective look at patients who had both CT and MRI scans, so it can't prove cause and effect. It also doesn't follow people over time to see how their disease changes. But it suggests the IM-PAC grade could be a practical, repeatable way to quantify pancreatic atrophy in clinical care.