Comparisons of integrated slice-specific dynamic shimming EPI and single-shot EPI diffusion-weighted imaging of the liver
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Updated: May 31, 2025
Registered Bioimaging of Nanomaterials for Diagnostic and Therapeutic Monitoring
Published on: December 9, 2010
Suiling Liu1, Yueli Lin1, Weijun Situ2
1Department of Radiology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, No.139 Middle Renmin Road, Changsha, Hunan, 410011, China; Department of Radiology Quality Control Center, Changsha, Hunan Province, 410011, China; Clinical Nursing Teaching and Research Section, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, No.139 Middle Renmin Road, Changsha, Hunan, 410011, China.
Purpose:
To compare the quality of DWI images, signal loss of left hepatic lobe and diagnostic performance of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values between SS-EPI and iShim-EPI in liver lesions.
Methods:
Totally 142 patients were involved, images using SS-EPI and the prototype iShim-EPI were acquired before injection of gadoxetic acid-enhanced liver MRI.Image quality of demarcation of liver capsule, resolution, lesion distortion, artifacts, lesion confidence score, and signal loss in left hepatic lobe was assessed by two radiologists. Mean ADC values of the largest lesions were measured, and the correlations, agreements, and diagnostic performances were compared between the two sequences.
Results:
Image quality of the iShim-EPI was significantly improved over that of SS-EPI (ICC 0.843 to 0.991, p < 0.05), the signal loss in the left hepatic lobe was greatly reduced. The ADC values were highly correlated (r = 0.93, p < 0.001) and had good agreement (CI -475.5 ∼ 722.1 × 10-6 mm2/s) between the two sequences. Compared with SS-EPI,iShim-EPI had better performance in detecting benign (hepatic haemangioma and cyst) and malignant (primary liver cancer and hepatic metastases) diseases. Furthermore, iShim-EPI had a significantly larger AUC in differentiating cancer from benign lesions (both hepatic haemangioma and cyst) (p < 0.05).
Conclusions:
IShim-EPI DWI is a promising method for differentiating benign and malignant liver lesions with better image quality, less signal loss of left hepatic lobe and could enhance the confidence of diseases diagnosis compared with SS-EPI.
