Prediction of pancreatic fistula after pancreatectomy by virtual touch tissue imaging and quantification (VTIQ) technology

The aim of this study was to quantitatively evaluate the stiffness of pancreatic parenchyma and solid focal pancreatic lesions (FPLs) by virtual touch tissue imaging and quantification (VTIQ) technique and to investigate the potential usefulness of VTIQ method in the prediction of post-operative pancreatic fistula (POPF) after pancreatectomy.In this prospective study, patients who scheduled to undergo pancreatectomy were initially enrolled and received VTIQ assessment within one week before surgery. VTIQ elastography (Siemens ACUSON Sequoia, 5C-1 transducer) was used to measure the shear wave velocity (SWV) value of FPLs and the body part pancreatic parenchyma. The palpation stiffness of pancreas was qualitatively evaluated during operation by surgeons. POPF was finally diagnosed and graded through a three-weeks post-operative follow-up according to international study group of pancreatic fistula (ISGPF). SWV values were compared between POPF positive and negative group. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of SWV value in predicting POPF.From December 2020 to June 2021, 44 patients were finally enrolled in this study, among which, 26 patients were identified to develop POPF after pancreatectomy. The SWV value of pancreatic parenchyma in POPF positive group was significantly lower than that in POPF negative group (P = 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in palpation stiffness between the two groups (P = 0.124). Besides, neither the SWV value of FPL nor the SWV ratio between FPL to surrounding pancreatic parenchyma differ significantly between POPF positive and negative group (P > 0.05). Taking SWV value of pancreatic parenchyma >1.10 m/s as a cut-off value for predicting POPF, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) was 0.864 with 72.2% sensitivity, 92.3% specificity, 86.7% positive predictive value (PPV) and 82.8% negative predictive value (NPV), respectively.VTIQ technique might be a potential non-invasive imaging method to predict POPF before pancreatectomy in future clinical practice.