High-Resolution Motion-Robust Abdominal DWI

MRI is attractive in cancer imaging due to superior soft tissue contrast and multiparametric capabilities. However, MRI can challenged by high complexity and lengthy exam time which may not be ideal for cancer imaging, in particular cancer surveillance. One solution to these challenges is diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), which has been proposed for cancer surveillance and is widely used in cancer imaging. DWI is an attractive solution as it is a high contrast sequences that highlights tissue cellularity without the need for gadolinium-based intravenous contrast agents, and can serve as a quantitative imaging biomarker via reconstruction of ADC maps. Rapid protocols based solely on DWI could reduce cost and increase MRI access for cancer patients. Unfortunately, current clinical implementations of abdominal DWI suffer from several limitations including distortion, physiologic motion degradation, blurring manifesting as reduced spatial resolution, and reduced signal-to-noise (SNR) which collectively limit diagnostic potential and render ADC maps inaccurate. These barriers limit DWI as a stand-alone solution for cancer imaging. Our team is developing a high-resolution and robust DWI method leveraging multi-shot EPI, a reduced FOV excitations pulse, and numerically optimized diffusions gradients with integrated first-order motion compensation. Applications in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, hepatic malignancies, and whole-body imaging are actively being pursued.