Simultaneous multislice diffusion-weighted imaging versus standard diffusion-weighted imaging in whole-body PET/MRI

• DOI: 10.1007/s00330-022-09275-4
• Publication Date: 2022-12-03T04:27:34Z
• Authors: Felipe S. Furtado; Nathaniel D. Merc...; Thomas Vahle; Thomas Benkert; William R. Bradley; Lisa Ratanaprasat...; Ravi Teja Seetham...; Mukesh G. Harisin...; Susanna Lee; Krista Suarez-Weiss; Lale Umutlu; Ciprian Catana; Kelsey L. Pomykala; Liran Domachevsky; Hanna Bernstine; David Groshar; Bruse R. Rosen; Onofrio Antonio C...
• Keywords: Neuroradiology; Whole body imaging; Multislice

To compare standard (STD-DWI) single-shot echo-planar imaging DWI and simultaneous multislice (SMS) DWI during whole-body positron emission tomography (PET)/MRI regarding acquisition time, image quality, and lesion detection.Eighty-three adults (47 females, 57%), median age of 64 years (IQR 52-71), were prospectively enrolled from August 2018 to March 2020. Inclusion criteria were (a) abdominal or pelvic tumors and (b) PET/MRI referral from a clinician. Patients were excluded if whole-body acquisition of STD-DWI and SMS-DWI sequences was not completed. The evaluated sequences were axial STD-DWI at b-values 50-400-800 s/mm2 and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and axial SMS-DWI at b-values 50-300-800 s/mm2 and ADC, acquired with a 3-T PET/MRI scanner. Three radiologists rated each sequence's quality on a five-point scale. Lesion detection was quantified using the anatomic MRI sequences and PET as the reference standard. Regression models were constructed to quantify the association between all imaging outcomes/scores and sequence type.The median whole-body STD-DWI acquisition time was 14.8 min (IQR 14.1-16.0) versus 7.0 min (IQR 6.7-7.2) for whole-body SMS-DWI, p < 0.001. SMS-DWI image quality scores were higher than STD-DWI in the abdomen (OR 5.31, 95% CI 2.76-10.22, p < 0.001), but lower in the cervicothoracic junction (OR 0.21, 95% CI 0.10-0.43, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the chest, mediastinum, pelvis, and rectum. STD-DWI detected 276/352 (78%) lesions while SMS-DWI located 296/352 (84%, OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.02-2.07, p = 0.038).In cancer staging and restaging, SMS-DWI abbreviates acquisition while maintaining or improving the diagnostic yield in most anatomic regions.• Simultaneous multislice diffusion-weighted imaging enables faster whole-body image acquisition. • Simultaneous multislice diffusion-weighted imaging maintains or improves image quality when compared to single-shot echo-planar diffusion-weighted imaging in most anatomical regions. • Simultaneous multislice diffusion-weighted imaging leads to superior lesion detection.