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Abstract #2653

SSFP Diffusion Prepared SSFSE

Weiying Dai1, Philip M. Robson1, David C. Alsop1

1Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States


SSFP diffusion weighted imaging in the body can have improved image quality relative to echoplanar imaging. Its stronger diffusion attenuation of longer T2 fluid may also be a particular benefit in cancer screening studies, but the slow acquisition speed is a major limitation. Here we propose performing a diffusion weighted SSFP sequence as a preparation for a faster SSFSE sequence. The theoretical signal is described and pulse parameters are optimized. The resulting sequence is then applied to in-vivo diffusion weighted imaging of volunteers. Excellent suppression of fluid and blood signal is demonstrated.