Nandita deSouza1, Matthew Orton1, Kate Downey1, Veronica Morgan1, David Collins1, Sharon Giles1, and Geoffrey Payne1
Diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) suffers from distortion
induced by susceptibility variation and eddy-currents. To correct this for endovaginal imaging of
the uterine cervix, we implemented the forward and reversed gradient technique
proposed by Chang and Fitzpatrick in the phase-encode direction and assessed
clinical utility of the technique. This
required acquisition of two images of the cervix under the same conditions. Correction of distortions significantly
improved diagnostic performance for an experienced observer when images were
viewed with the T2-W images. Correction
allowed definitive diagnosis in a third of cases with tumour volumes of
<0.2cm3 classified as equivocal on uncorrected images.
