Echoplanar diffusion-weighted MRI with intravenous gadolinium-DTPA

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Neuroimaging
• Medical Imaging

Background:

• Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is crucial for diagnosing brain abnormalities.
• Intravenous contrast medium (CM) is sometimes administered before repeat DWI scans.
• The impact of CM on DWI and apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) requires thorough investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To prospectively evaluate diagnostic differences in echo-planar imaging (EPI)-DWI before and after intravenous CM administration.
• To assess the effect of CM on quantitative ADC values in brain lesions and normal tissue.

Main Methods:

• EPI-DWI was performed twice on 203 consecutive patients, pre- and post-intravenous CM.
• Three blinded radiologists assessed diagnostic image quality.
• Quantitative ADC calculations were performed on lesions and normal brain regions in 72 patients.

Main Results:

• No significant signal differences were observed on isotropic DWI before and after CM, even in lesions with a disrupted blood-brain barrier (BBB).
• Quantitative ADC values showed no statistically significant differences between pre- and post-CM scans.
• No significant difference was found in ADC values between lesions and contralateral normal brain regions.

Conclusions:

• Intravenous CM administration does not introduce diagnostically significant differences in EPI-DWI quality or ADC values.
• Repeat DWI after CM can be reliably performed without compromising diagnostic accuracy.
• Findings support the use of CM in repeat DWI protocols for brain imaging.