In vivo Intravoxel Incoherent Motion (IVIM) parameter
mapping in the brain is particularly challenging because of inherent noise
amplification of parallel imaging. To address this limitation, correlations in space
and in the b-value dimension may be jointly exploited. To this end, an
iterative approach of k-t PCA was adapted to allow image reconstruction from
undersampled IVIM data. Reconstruction and parameter estimation errors of the
proposed k-b PCA approach relative to parallel imaging were assessed. Mean
absolute parameter errors of k-b PCA were lower compared to CG-SENSE (R=4):
1.3±1.9·10-4/1.8±2.0·10-4 mm2/s (D) 0.068±0.083/0.085±0.101
(f) and 6.4±16.9·10-2/7.6±18.3·10-2 mm2/s
(D*). It is concluded that k-b
PCA is a promising alternative to parallel imaging to reduce scan times while
maintaining the quality of diffusion and perfusion parameter maps in brain
exams.
