Multiband Diffusion-Weighted Breast MRI

This novel technique reduces distortion in high-resolution diffusion MRI. Diffusion MRI is often limited by blurring or distortion, which is fundamentally proportional to the field of view (FOV) of the image.  These effects can be overcome by exciting only a narrow "strip" of signal at each time.  The narrow "strips" have reduced FOV and thus reduced distortion.  In this work, we have developed a way to simultaneously excite multiple strips, and use multiple coils to separate the signals from the strips.  This enables high-resolution images with reduced distortion over the entire FOV of the subject.

Taviani V, Alley MT, Banerjee S, Nishimura DG, Daniel BL, Vasanawala SS, Hargreaves BA.  High-resolution DWI of the breast with multiband 2D RF pulses and a generalized parallel imaging reconstruction. Magn Reson Med. 2017 Jan;77(1):209-20.

Online Journal Article

Comparison of our new "multiband" (MB) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and conventional DWI in a patient with a breast cancer.  The highlighted areas A and B show the improved sharpness of the lesion.  The "FOCUS" image is the single-strip approach which offers similar sharpness to A, but does not cover the whole breast.

Marcus Alley
Senior Research Scientist - Physical, Rad/Radiological Sciences Laboratory
mtalley@stanford.edu
Dwight Nishimura
Addie and Al Macovski Professor, Emeritus
(650) 723-4533
dwight@stanford.edu
Bruce Daniel
Professor of Radiology (Body Imaging) and, by courtesy, of Bioengineering
bdaniel@stanford.edu
Shreyas Vasanawala, MD/PhD
William R. Brody Professor of Pediatric Radiology and Child Health
Brian A. Hargreaves
Professor of Radiology (Radiological Sciences Laboratory) and, by courtesy, of Electrical Engineering and of Bioengineering
(650) 498-5368
bah@stanford.edu

Valentina Taviani is an alumnus of the BMR group