Abstract #4280

Diffusion-Weighted Zoomed EPI of the Larynx & Oral Cavity/oropharynx

Daniel Guo Quae Chong¹, Dechen Wangmo Tshering Vogel¹, Josef Pfeuffer², Andre de Oliveira², Berthold Kiefer², Johnannes Micheal Froehlich^1,3, Harriet Thoeny¹

¹Dept. of Diagnostic, Interventional & Pediatric Radiology (DIPR), Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland; ²Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany; ³Guerbet AG, Zurich, Switzerland

Zoomed-EPI was compared with conventional EPI for imaging of the larynx and oral cavity/oropharynx being regions highly susceptible for artifacts, but with a high incidence of tumors warranting a reliable DW-MRI technique. Zoomed-EPI allows a reduced field of view readout scheme leading to a reduced phase evolution induced by the local field inhomogeneities. The aim of our study was to prospectively compare both EPI and Zoomed-EPI at 3T for DW-MRI of the larynx and oral cavity/oropharynx. Our results show that Zoomed-EPI provides less distortion artifacts, higher resolution in equal scan time and similar resultant ADC values.