Abstract #0400
Feasibility of a respiratory-triggered SSEPI diffusion-weighted sequence for liver imaging using navigator echo technique: comparison with breath-hold diffusion-weighted sequence
Parikh T, Johnson G, Sandberg A, Taouli B, Stemmer A, Xu J
NYU Medical Center
Our objective was to implement a new non breath-hold (NBH) SSEPI diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequence combined with a navigator echo technique for liver imaging and to compare it with a breath-hold (BH) DWI sequence at b=0, 50 and 500 sec/mm2. NBH DWI showed significantly better image quality and better normalized liver signal ratio. In addition, lesion to liver contrast ratio was significantly higher with NBH DWI. ADCs of liver and focal lesions with both sequences were significantly correlated. The use of a navigator echo to trigger a SSEPI DWI sequence improves image quality and liver lesion conspicuity.