[Usefulness of Respiratory Suppression for Abdominal Using EPI Sequences]

Area of Science:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
• Medical Imaging Technology

Background:

• Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is crucial for evaluating abdominal organs.
• Motion artifacts from respiration can degrade image quality and affect diagnostic accuracy in upper abdominal DWI.
• Respiratory suppression techniques aim to minimize motion during MRI scans.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of respiratory suppression in reducing motion artifacts during upper abdominal DWI.
• To compare image quality and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values between free-breathing and respiratory-suppressed DWI.
• To assess the utility of single-shot echo-planar imaging (SS-EPI) and readout-segmented EPI (RS-EPI) with respiratory suppression.

Main Methods:

• Healthy volunteers underwent upper abdominal DWI using SS-EPI and RS-EPI sequences.
• Imaging was performed under both free-breathing and respiratory-suppressed conditions.
• Motion artifacts, organ movement distances, and ADC values were quantitatively and qualitatively assessed.

Main Results:

• Respiratory suppression significantly reduced motion artifacts and organ movement distances compared to free breathing.
• No significant changes in ADC values were observed between the two breathing techniques.
• RS-EPI demonstrated comparable utility to SS-EPI for upper abdominal imaging with respiratory suppression.

Conclusions:

• Respiratory suppression is a simple and effective method to improve the quality of upper abdominal DWI.
• This technique minimizes motion-related artifacts without altering ADC measurements.
• Both SS-EPI and RS-EPI are suitable for respiratory-suppressed upper abdominal DWI.