Single breath-hold diffusion-weighted imaging of the abdomen.

Abstract

PURPOSE: To generate high quality diffusion-weighted images (DWI) and corresponding isotropic ADC maps of the abdomen with full organ (kidneys) coverage in a single breath-hold. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DWI was performed in 12 healthy subjects with an asymmetric, spin-echo, single-shot EPI readout on a system with high performance gradients (40 mT/minute). The isotropic diffusion coefficient was measured from maps and SNR was determined for both diffusion-weighted and reference images in the liver, spleen, pancreas, and kidneys. In six patients, single-axis diffusion encoding along three orthogonal axes (12 NEX) was employed to assess anisotropic diffusion in kidneys. RESULTS: This technique..