Abstract #0505

Nagle S, Bammer R, Lansberg M, Clayton D, Albers G

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) has proven indispensable in the diagnosis of acute stroke. Most DWI sequences use single-shot EPI methods; however, the long read-out time of these sequences leaves them sensitive to off-resonance and T2*-blurring effects. Applying parallel imaging techniques to DWI (SENSE DWI) may reduce these effects and improving the overall quality of clinical DWI scans. The authors present the results of a prospective clinical trial comparing conventional DWI with SENSE DWI sequences on a 1.5T scanner. The SENSE DWI scans demonstrated a significant reduction in susceptibility artifact and blurring and improved overall image quality in the majority of scans.