Evaluation of apparent diffusion coefficient of two-dimensional BLADE turbo gradient- and spin-echo diffusion-weighted imaging with a breast phantom

• Published in: Radiological physics and technology Vol. 16; no. 1; pp. 118 - 126
• Main Authors: Ohki, Akiko, Sagawa, Hajime, Iima, Mami, Kataoka, Masako, Fushimi, Yasutaka, Zhou, Kun
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore Springer Nature Singapore 01-03-2023; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Breast; Diffusion coefficient; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Distortion; Echo-Planar Imaging - methods; Evaluation; Imaging; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Medical and Radiation Physics; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Nuclear Medicine; Radiology; Radiotherapy; Reliability analysis; Reproducibility of Results; Signal to noise ratio; Technical Note; Thickness; Diffusion-weighted imaging; Breast; TGSE-BLADE-DWI; Magnetic resonance imaging; Apparent diffusion coefficient
• ISSN: 1865-0333; 1865-0341
• DOI: 10.1007/s12194-022-00694-y

This study aimed to evaluate the reliability of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values generated with two-dimensional turbo gradient- and spin-echo with BLADE trajectory diffusion-weighted imaging (TGSE-BLADE-DWI) sequence using a breast diffusion phantom. TGSE-BLADE-DWI and single-shot spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SS-EPI-DWI) were performed using a 3.0 T magnetic resonance imaging scanner. Concordance rates of ADC values and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) were compared between TGSE-BLADE-DWI and SS-EPI-DWI. TGSE-BLADE-DWI provided a higher concordance rate for ADC values than SS-EPI-DWI when b-values > 2000s/mm
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and a slice thickness of 1 mm were used. TGSE-BLADE-DWI showed less image distortion than SS-EPI-DWI. The SNR of TGSE-BLADE-DWI was higher than that of SS-EPI-DWI, except at a number of excitations of 7 and a slice thickness of 1 mm. In conclusion, TGSE-BLADE-DWI can offer a better SNR, less distortion, and more reliable ADC measurements than SS-EPI-DWI in a breast phantom.