Hadrien Arezki Dyvorne1, Thomas Nevers1, Nicola Galea2, M. Isabel Fiel3, David Carpenter1, Edmund Wong1, Matthew Orton4, Andre de Oliveira5, Marie-Louise Vachon3, Manjil Chatterji1, Douglas Dieterich3, Bachir Taouli1
1Radiology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, United States; 2Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; 3Department of Medicine/Liver Disease, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, United States; 4CR-UK and EPSRC Cancer Imaging Centre, Institute of Cancer Research, Sutton, Surrey, United Kingdom; 5AG Healthcare Sector, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany
This study compares the performance and reproducibility of four diffusion-weighted sequences using multiple b values and biexponential fit for the detection of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C. We investigated the role of gradient polarity and respiratory monitoring on the reproducibility and diagnostic quality of IVIM parameters. For all sequences, results showed acceptable to excellent reproducibility and a marked decrease of diffusion, perfusion fraction and apparent diffusion coefficients with the degree of fibrosis. In addition, free breathing acquisitions were found to give the better results.