Patient Preparation of the Biliary region MRI

In our practice, patients fast for 4 hours before the MRI examination so that the gallbladder is distended and it is possible to adequately assess the exocrine response to secretin. Negative oral contrast is useful to reduce the signal from overlying stomach and duodenum. Pineapple and blueberry juice have been used as oral contrast agents . The manganese content of these juices results in increased signal on T1-weighted images and reduced signal on T2-weighted images. We prefer the use of 300 mL of proprietary silicone-coated superparamagnetic iron oxide particle suspension (ferumoxsil, GastroMark, Mallinckrodt Medical)  taken orally a few minutes before the MRI examination.

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