Periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction-based diffusion tensor imaging. Comparison with echo planar imaging-based diffusion tensor imaging.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) based on periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER) compared with DTI based on single-shot echo planar imaging (EPI).


METHODS
Diffusion tensor data were acquired with PROPELLER (PROPELLER-DTI, 3 NEX), EPI (EPI-DTI2, 16 NEX) with the same acquisition time (11.4 minutes) and with EPI (EPI-DTI1, number of excitations = 4) with a shorter acquisition time (2.8 minutes). Regions of interest were set in the genu and splenium of the corpus callosum, as determined on T2-weighted fast spin echo images and fractional anisotropy (FA) maps, separately. Two neuroradiologists visually evaluated image distortion and quality in the supra- and infratentorial structures.


RESULTS
In the genu, standard deviation determined by respective FA maps was decreased in order of PROPELLER-DTI, EPI-DTI1, and EPI-DTI2. Both EPI-DTI sequences were quantitatively superior in the splenium, but PROPELLER-DTI was less distorted.


CONCLUSIONS
Periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction-DTI could become a complementary tool when qualitatively evaluating seriously distorted structures.
Department of Radiology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8655, Japan. abediag-tky@umin.ac.jp
Osamu
O
Abe
Harushi
H
Mori
Shigeki
S
Aoki
Akira
A
Kunimatsu
Naoto
N
Hayashi
Tomohiko
T
Masumoto
Haruyasu
H
Yamada
Yoshitaka
Y
Masutani
Hiroyuki
H
Kabasawa
Kuni
K
Ohtomo
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011859:Radiography; D012016:Reference Values; D012399:Rotation; D014463:Ultrasonography