Progress in visualization technology for diabetic pancreas from macroscopic anatomy to microscopic molecular imaging

As the insulin-secreting organ, pancreas will appear a series of pathological changes with the occurrence and development of diabetes mellitus (DM), which may provide critical information about the onset and progression of DM. In addition to various kinds of biochemical indicators, pancreatic imaging techniques also provide relevant information reflecting pancreas of DM patients. Ultrasound, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and nuclear medicine imaging are applied to noninvasively visualize the pancreas of diabetic patients from the aspects of pancreatic appearance, hemodynamic information and molecular imaging. In recent years, the β-cell imaging technology, based mainly on magnetic resonance imaging and nuclear medical imaging techniques, has achieved significant progress. In particular, the technique of quantifying islet β-cell mass (BCM) by using radionuclide labeled glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor targeting probe has achieved remarkable results, offering novel visualization methods for islet BCM detection. However, due to the application conditions of various imaging techniques and the lack of relevant clinical data, effective and reliable interpretation standards and evaluation methods, there is still no accurate, effective and safe specific evaluation method for DM pancreas imaging in clinic. This paper elaborates the progress of pancreatic visualization technology in DM, so as to provide reference for the development of pancreatic imaging tools in patients with DM.