Diffusion-weighted whole-body MR imaging with background body signal suppression: a feasibility study at 3.0 Tesla

The purpose was to provide a diffusion-weighted whole-body magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sequence with background body signal suppression (DWIBS) at 3.0 Tesla. A diffusion-weighted spin-echo echo-planar imaging sequence was combined with the following methods of fat suppression: short TI inversion recovery (STIR), spectral attenuated inversion recovery (SPAIR), and spectral presaturation by inversion recovery (SPIR). Optimized sequences were implemented on a 3.0- and a 1.5-Tesla system and evaluated in three healthy volunteers and six patients with various lesions in the neck, chest, and abdomen on the basis of reconstructed maximum intensity projection images. In one patient with metastases of malignant melanoma, DWIBS was compared with ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Good fat suppression for all regions and diagnostic image quality in all cases could be obtained at 3.0 Tesla with the STIR method. In comparison with 1.5 Tesla, DWIBS images at 3.0 Tesla were judged to provide a better lesion-to-bone tissue contrast. However, larger susceptibility-induced image distortions and signal intensity losses, stronger blurring artifacts, and more pronounced motion artifacts degraded the image quality at 3.0 Tesla. A good correlation was found between the metastases as depicted by DWIBS and those as visualized by FDG-PET. DWIBS is feasible at 3.0 Tesla with diagnostic image quality.