The purpose of this study was
to minimize echo planar imaging (EPI)-related distortion artifacts while
maintaining the time-efficiency for prostate diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) using
a reduced field of view (rFOV) readout-segmented EPI (RESOLVE) technique. Image
distortions in clinical standard DW single-shot (ss) EPI (5:52min) were
compared with a matched RESOLVE protocol (seven segments, 7:03min) and rFOV
RESOLVE (five segments, 4:59min) using the Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) on
forward and reverse phase-encoded images.
DSC was significantly higher (0.91±0.05) in rFOV RESOLVE compared with the
other protocols, indicating that rFOV RESOLVE can improve DWI quality and
visualization in the prostate compared with ss-EPI, with higher time efficiency
than regular RESOLVE.
