Characterization of the TE Dependence of IVIM Biomarkers in a Flow Phantom & In Vivo

Gene Young Cho¹, Daniel K. Sodickson¹, Eric E. Sigmund¹

Recent applications of IVIM diffusion-weighted imaging produce biomarkers of tissue structure and vascularity. However, these biomarkers may show dependence on echo time (TE). Recent observations have shown TE dependence of perfusion fraction, attributable to differential relaxation weighting. There may be dependence of the pseudo-diffusion rate on TE when such times are similar to transit times for a vessel branch. With proper modeling, this dependence could be exploited for quantification of vessel parameters useful for characterization of tumors or highly perfused organs. We explore the dependence of IVIM parameters upon TE in a phantom and human kidney in a clinical scanner.