A recent study published in BMC Medical Imaging highlighted the role of automated pancreatic extracellular volume fraction (AP-ECV) as a biomarker in microangiopathy in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
The study aimed to develop a screening model using routine abdominal enhanced CT imaging.

A total of 320 patients were selected, and a retrospective study was done. To calculate AP-ECV values from enhanced abdominal CT images, an automated method was developed. Using univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, the association between AP-ECV and T2DM microangiopathy was determined. For determining the AP-ECV’s diagnostic ability in T2DM microangiopathy, sensitivity, area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), and specificity were determined. Risk factors associated with the severity of microangiopathy were estimated using ordinal logistic regression.

In T2DM patients with microangiopathy, an increase in AP-ECV and T2DM duration was observed. For T2DM, the AUC was found to be 0.761, and for AP-ECV it was 0.767, with a combined AUC of 0.881. An increase in the length of T2DM duration was found as the AP-ECV increased (OR 1.406), with a decline in microangiopathy severity