Review
Research progress of reduced field of view diffusion weighted imaging of magnetic resonance in medical diagnosis
Lili Xu1,2, Boxu Ren 1,2,✉
1Department of Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei 434023, China. 2The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei 434023, China. ✉Correspondence Boxu Ren, Department of Imaging and Nuclear Medicine, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, Hubei 434023, China. Email: [email protected]. Telephone number: 13908612157. Received: May 29, 2019; Accepted: Aug 5, 2019; Published online: Sept 6, 2019. Cite this paper: Lili Xu, Boxu Ren. (2020) Research progress of reduced field of view diffusion weighted imaging of magnetic resonance in medical diagnosis. Global Journal of Imaging and Interventional Medicine, 1(1):10-16. https://naturescholars.com/gjiim.010103. https://doi.org/10.46633/gjiim.010103. Copyright © 2020 by Scholars Publishing, LLC.
Abstract
Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) of magnetic resonance has the advantages of radiation-free, high-contrast, multi-sequence, multi-angle imaging, and etc. It is an emerging functional MRI technology, which can be used to study diseases at the molecular level without the contrast agent injection. In the mid-1980s, DWI was first applied to the human body, and then rapidly developed to be applied to all body systems (1). Currently, single-shot planar echo imaging (SS-EPI) sequences are widely used in the clinical application of DWI; however, the image resolution is not good enough. Moreover, it is easy to produce magnetic sensitivity effect and magnetic resonance artifact, which leads to image artifacts, deformation and distortion, especially for minor lesions (2). Reduced field of view DWI (r-FOV DWI) adopts two-dimensional selectively excitation radio frequency technology to stimulate only a small range of interest areas, which reduces image folding and artifacts, and provides high-resolution images. This is especially important for examination of organs and parts with small size and fine structure, with significant changes in the magnetization rate near the anatomical parts or susceptible to involuntary physiological movements. In this paper, the principles of DWI of small field and its progress of applications in various organs are reviewed.
Key word: Diffusion-weighted imaging; Reduced FOV; Image quality; Diagnosis