Objective To measure the pancreatic fat content using magnetic resonance Dixon technique, observe the effects of pancreatic fat content and fat distribution on the occurrence of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM), and explore the predictive value of pancreatic fat content and distribution on the occurrence of T2DM.

Methods A total of 147 patients with abdominal MR Dixon sequence scanning examination were retrospectively analyzed.The patients were divided into the T2DM group(59 patients), risk group(38 patients) and control group(50 patients).The fat fraction of pancreatic head, pancreatic body and pancreatic tail in three groups were obtained.The age, sex, smoking and drinking history, fasting plasma glucose(FPG), total cholesterol(TC), high-density lipoprotein(HDL-C), triglyceride(TG), low-density lipoprotein(LDL-C), liver function, serum creatinine(Cr) and body mass index (BMI) were compared among three groups.The patients were divided into the normal BMI group, overweight BMI group and obesity group according to the level of BMI.The differences of pancreatic fat fraction among T2DM group, risk group and control group were analyzed.Logistic regression analysis was further conducted to determine the impact of pancreatic fat distribution on T2DM.

Results There was no statistical significance in the age, smoking and drinking ratio, BMI, ALT, AST, TC, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C among T2DM group, risk group and control group(P>0.05).The differences of the head, body, tail and average fat fraction of pancreas among three groups were statistically significant (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01).The head, body and average fat fraction of pancreas in the T2DM group were higher than those in control group(P < 0.05 to P < 0.01), and the fat fraction of pancreatic tail in the T2DM and risk groups were higher than those in control group (P < 0.01).In the normal BMI group, the head, body, tail and average fat fraction of pancreas in the T2DM group were higher than those in control group(P < 0.05).In the overweight group, the pancreatic tail and mean fat fraction in the T2DM group were higher than those in control group(P < 0.05).In the obese group, there was no statistical significance in different parts and average fat fraction among three groups(P>0.05).The results of multivariate logistic results showed that the high fat fraction in the tail of the pancreas was an independent risk factor for T2DM (OR=1.685, 95%CI: 1.174-2.419, P < 0.01), there was no statistical significance in the association between pancreatic head, body fat fraction, BMI, TC, TG and LDL-C levels and for T2DM (P>0.05).

Conclusions The increase of pancreatic fat content is related to T2DM, and the increase of pancreatic tail fat content also increases the risk of T2DM.