Simultaneous multi-slice echo planar imaging for accelerated diffusion-weighted imaging of malignant and benign breast lesions

The diagnostic accuracy of breast MRI can be increased by performing an additional diffusion sequence (EPI), however, further extending the examination time. Aim of our study was to investigate simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) accelerated EPI (TA 1:37 min) compared to the standard sequence (TA 2:57 min) in a clinical study. Image quality, artifacts and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of 72 breast lesions were determined. SMS-EPI achieved the same ADC values in benign and malignant breast lesions compared to the standard sequence, image quality did not differ. This indicates that SMS acceleration can be used for diffusion imaging in breast MRI.