Study of the reduced field-of-view diffusion-weighted imaging of the breast

This study aimed to compare the imaging quality, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values, and application values between reduced field-of-view diffusion-weighted imaging (rFOV DWI) and single-shot echo-planar-imaging diffusion-weighted imaging (SS-EPI DWI) of breast tissue.

For 87 cases (75 with normal breast tissue, 12 with mammary cancer), breasts were scanned with SS-EPI DWI and rFOV DWI (b values, 800 s/mm(2)). Image quality and ADC values of breast tissue images were compared between SS-EPI DWI and rFOV DWI.

The average image quality score for the 87 cases was 4.73 in rFOV DWI and 3.62 in SS-EPI DWI. The difference was statistically significant (P < .01). The resolution of rFOV DWI was 2.25 mm × 1.23 mm, which was higher than the resolution of SS-EPI DWI (2.25 mm × 2.25 mm). The mean ADC value of 75 cases with normal breast tissue was 1.696 × 10(-3) mm(2)/s by rFOV DWI and 1.832 × 10(-3) mm(2)/s by SS-EPI DWI, and the difference was statistically significant (P < .01). The mean ADC value for the 12 cases with breast cancer was 1.065 × 10(-3) mm(2)/s by rFOV DWI and 1.192 × 10(-3) mm(2)/s by SS-EPI DWI, which was a statistically significant difference (P < .05).

rFOV DWI presented images with higher resolution and less distortion than SS-EPI DWI, and this difference may be helpful in disease diagnosis.