Comparison between diffusion‐weighted MRI (DW‐MRI) at 1.5 and 3 tesla: A phantom study

摘要: Purpose To compare DW-MRI between 1.5 and 3 Tesla (T) in terms of image quality, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), reproducibility, lesion-to-background contrast signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), using a test object. Materials Methods A spherical phantom was used for qualitatively assessing quality performing quantitative measurements the two field strengths. Results Distortions signal losses degraded at 3T even when protocols were optimized minimum TE. The ADC, majority compartments, significantly different 1.5T (P < 0.009), while average variation, excluding compartments affected by artifacts, <1.3% both strengths. improved images acquired with b = 1000 s/mm2 comparable achieved higher b-values. SNR gain could, theory, be balanced increased number excitations one can accommodate to perform within same acquisition time possibly systems no parallel transmission are used. Conclusion Further vivo studies required investigate utility 3T, if times ones from assumed. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2014;40:682–690. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.