Sabrina Doblas1, Mathilde Wagner1,2,
Jean-Luc Daire1,2, Nathalie Haddad1,2, Helena Leitao2,3,
Ralph Sinkus1, Bernard E. Van Beers1,2, Valrie Vilgrain1,2
1Centre de Recherche
Biomdicale Bichat-Beaujon, INSERM U773, Clichy, France; 2Department
of Radiology, Beaujon University Hospital, University Paris Diderot, Clichy,
France; 3Department of Radiology, Hospitais de Universidade de Coimbra,
Coimbra, Portugal
The inter-observer reliability and the inter-acquisition repeatability of a bi-exponential, multi-b diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) approach were investigated in 13 hepatic tumors. Average measurements of perfusion fraction, pure diffusion fraction, perfusion coefficient, pure diffusion coefficient as well as conventional apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) were performed by 2 independent observers for 2 successive DWI acquisitions. A maximal overall variation in DWI measurement of 32% was observed for the most reliable and repeatable parameters, whereas the perfusion coefficient appeared to be highly unreliable. Improved DWI acquisitions limiting respiratory motion artefacts could potentially lead to more reliable measurements.