Abstract
PurposeTo evaluate the impact of application acquisition and reconstruction with motion suppression (ARMS) technology on improving the image quality of diffusion-weighted Imaging (DWI) for nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), compared to single-shot echo-planar imaging (SS-EPI). MethodsA total of 90 patients with NPC underwent MR examination, including ARMS DWI and SS-EPI DWI sequences. Both DWI sequences were acquired with b-values 0 and 800 s/mm2. Two radiologists evaluated the visibility of the lesion, geometric distortion, and overall image quality of the two DWI sequences. Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), geometric distortion degree, and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the nasopharyngeal lesions were assessed and compared for two sequences. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the quantitative and qualitative parameters of the two sequences. ResultsThe lesion visibility, geometric distortion, and overall image quality scores were significantly higher in ARMS DWI (all P<0.001). Four small-sized lesions were not visible and four lesions were partially visible in the SS-EPI DWI sequence. Lesion detection rate of ARMS DWI is 100 %, while that of SS-EPI is 95.56 %, P<0.043. The mismatch distance between the fusion images of ARMS DWI and T2WI was smaller than that of SS-EPI DWI and T2WI (all P<0.001). The SNR and CNR of ARMS DWI were lower than that of SS-EPI DWI (114.48 ± 37.89 vs. 202.61 ± 78.84, P<0.001 and 1.81 ± 1.84 vs. 3.29 ± 3.71, P<0.003) while the ADC value was higher (839.19 ± 138.44 × 10−6 mm2/s vs. 788.82 ± 110.96 × 10−6 mm2/s, P<0.002). ConclusionARMS DWI improves the image quality by reducing geometric distortion and magnetic susceptibility artifacts. ARMS DWI is superior to SS-EPI DWI for diagnosing small-sized nasopharyngeal lesions, although it has lower SNR and CNR.
Published Version
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