Abstract
Purpose
To suppress hepatic pseudo-anisotropy, which is a specific artifact in diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of the liver obtained under respiratory triggering, the authors developed a novel acquisition technique for DWI that we termed “diffusion-weighted imaging under split breath-hold acquisition and postprocessing” (DWI-SBAP). We evaluated its feasibility in this study.
Materials and methods
Of 113 patients whose hepatic DWI under respiratory triggering (RT-DWI) showed prominent hepatic pseudo-anisotropy, 35 were included in the study. DWI-SBAP was additionally performed in these patients. Two radiologists visually evaluated the RT-DWI and DWI-SBAP from the viewpoints of the degree of pseudo-anisotropy and the image quality of trace images of both sequences. During evaluation of the image quality of trace images, both pseudo-anisotropy and slice misregistration artifacts were taken into consideration.
Results
The pseudo-anisotropy seen was significantly lower in DWI-SBAP than that in RT-DWI. Regarding visual evaluation of the trace images, the image quality of DWI-SBAP was superior to that of RT-DWI, although misregistration artifacts were observed in DWI-SBAP trace images of two patients.
Conclusion
DWI-SBAP is a feasible technique for obtaining fine abdominal DWI and is effective in suppressing hepatic pseudo-anisotropy. To use this sequence in the clinical scenario, we believe it is necessary to develop a method of generating apparent diffusion coefficient maps and simultaneous use of slice tracking techniques.
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Nasu, K., Kuroki, Y. & Minami, M. Feasibility of diffusion-weighted imaging under split breath-hold acquisition and postprocessing (DWI-SBAP): an attempt to suppress hepatic pseudo-anisotropy. Jap J Radiol 27, 78–85 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-008-0303-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11604-008-0303-2