We investigated the clinical feasibility of using simultaneous multislice accelerated echo planar imaging diffusion-tensor imaging (SMS-EPI-DTI) to image thigh muscles of both 10 healthy control subjects and 20 dermatomyositis (DM)/ polymyositis (PM) patients. This technique yielded a reduced scan time to only about five minutes. The results showed that the tractographic imaging and DTI-derived parameters of edematous muscles differed among affected and unaffected muscles of the DM/PM patients and normal muscles of the control subjects. In conclusion, SMS-EPI-DTI is clinically feasible for imaging thigh muscles and quantitatively evaluating edematous muscles of DM and PM patients.
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