Application of Diffusion Weighted Imaging with Background Body Signal Suppression in Brain Neurography

Abstract

This study focused on the application of diffusion weighted imaging with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) in brain imaging. Diffusion weighted images with high b value were obtained by combining short T1 inversion recovery, sensitivity encoding technique and echo-planar imaging. Without reducing the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the acquisition time of unilateral motion probing gradients (MPGs) DWIBS sequences was controlled within 3 min. The sequences were then compared against the conventional 2D fat-suppressed T2WI. The proposed method enabled the combined use of DW-MR sequences and conventional MR sequences. For this reason, DWIBS is the most popular imaging technique so far, which facilitates the scan speed and reduces the scan time to about 1/3 of the time using conventional technique. Moreover, DWIBS can remove the influence of motion artifacts and increase the spatial resolution of images. By reducing background noises, DWIBS increases the image contrast and the quality of 3D whole-body diffusion weighted images.