Abstract #4121

Optimization of Diffusion-Weighted Imaging for the Liver MRI at 3T: Usefulness for the Detection of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Yukihisa Takayama¹, Akihiro Nishie¹, Yoshiki Asayama¹, Kousei Ishigami¹, Daisuke Kakihara², Yasuhiro Ushijima¹, Nobuhiro Fujita¹, Atsushi Takemura³, Makoto Obara³

¹Department of Clinical Radiology, Kyushu University, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka, Japan; ²Department of Molecular Imaging & Diagnosis, Kyushu University, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Fukuoka, Japan; ³Philips Electronics Japan, Tokyo, Japan

Our proposed optimized diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) can not only improve the image quality and spacial resolution, but also reduce chemical shift and susceptibility artifacts. In this study, we evaluated the utility of our proposed optimized DWI of liver magnetic resonance imaging. It can offer better diagnostic performance without reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of the normal liver parenchyma and lesion-to-non-lesion contrast-to-noise ratio with the conventional DWI which is widely used in the clinical practice. We suggest that our proposed optimized DWI should be advantageous for liver MRI to detect hepatocellular carcinoma.