Reduction of the variation in parameter estimation from atypical signal intensity decay or its variation near tumor in low b factors using a ROI-based analysis method in IVIM model for prostate diffusion imaging

In an IVIM technique, atypical signal intensity decay in low b factors or its variation at neighboring pixels at tumor lesion may be caused by tumor heterogeneity or spatial mismatch due to image distortion in EPI sequence, which can make estimated IVIM parameters be unreliable in conventional pixel-by-pixel method. Thus, to obtain more reliable IVIM outputs for prostate IVIM MR imaging, we suggest a new and simple ROI-based analysis method using all data of surrounding pixels in estimation and our study demonstrates a ROI-based analysis method decreased variation in IVIM parameters and can provide more reliable IVIM map images.