Jakob Weiss1, Jana Taron1, Ahmed E. Othman1, Petros Martirosian1, Sascha Kaufmann1, Ulrich Kramer1, Konstantin Nikolaou1, and Mike Notohamiprodjo1
To
evaluate the clinical performance of simultaneous multi-slice (sms)
diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of the prostate. A prototype sms-DWI sequence
was utilized and compared to conventional DWI sequences. Sms acquisition is
based on the recently introduced principle of simultaneously exciting and
acquiring multiple slices by a single radiofrequency (RF) pulse, thus
accelerating image acquisition directly by the number of simultaneously excited
slices (MB-factor). Image analyses revealed similar image quality and lesion
detection as compared to conventional DWI sequences at a substantially
decreased acquisition time. Sms-DWI seems a valuable alternative to
conventional DWI sequences for prostate imaging.