Echo-Planar Versus PROPELLER Diffusion-Weighted Imaging at 3T for Assessment of Thyroid Tumors

Sidhartha Nagala¹, Mary A. McLean², Daniel Scoffings³, Andrew N. Priest³, Piyush Jani¹, John R. Griffiths²

Diffusion weighted imaging has recently been used to differentiate between benign and malignant thyroid nodules. We compared the successfulness of EPI versus PROPELLER at 3T in the thyroid region. Images were evaluated by a consultant neuroradiologist on Functool software. We report visibly less distorted images using PROPELLER resulting in an increase in interpretable images. Our preliminary results show promise in differentiating between benign and malignant nodules. However, PROPELLER consistently produced higher ADC values than EPI. The cause of this is unclear and requires further investigation before PROPELLER can be recommended as the sequence of choice in this region.