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AJNR - American Journal of Neuroradiology

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American Journal of Neuroradiology 28:575-580, March 2007
© 2007 American Society of Neuroradiology

SPINE

Diffusion-Weighted Imaging of the Spine with a Non–Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill Single-Shot Fast Spin-Echo Sequence: Initial Experience

A.Y. Oner^a, T. Tali^a, F. Celikyay^a, A. Celik^b and P. Le Roux^c

^a Department of Radiology, Gazi University School of Medicine, Besevler-Ankara, Turkey
^b GE Medical Systems, Istanbul, Turkey
^c GE Healthcare, Global Applied Science Laboratory, Buc, France

Address correspondence to A. Yusuf Oner, MD, Department of Radiology, Gazi University School of Medicine, 06510, Besevler-Ankara, Turkey; e-mail: yusuf{at}tr.net

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To prospectively evaluate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement in diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of the spine with the use of a newly developed non–Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (non-CPMG) single-shot fast spin-echo (SS-FSE) sequence and its effect on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-four patients were enrolled after written informed consent. DWI of the spine was obtained with an echo-planar imaging (EPI)-based sequence followed by a non-CPMG SS-FSE technique. SNR and ADC values were measured over a lesion-free vertebral corpus. A quality score was assigned for each set of images to assess the image quality. When a spinal lesion was present, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and ADC were also measured. Student t tests were used for statistical analysis.

RESULTS: Mean SNR values were 5.83 ± 2.2 and 11.68 ± 2.87 for EPI and non-CPMG SS-FSE DWI, respectively. SNR values measured in DWI using parallel imaging were found to be significantly higher (P < .01). Mean ADCs of the spine were 0.53 ± 0.15 and 0.35 ± 0.15 x 10^–3 mm²/s for EPI and non-CPMG SS-FSE DWI, respectively. Quality scores were found to be higher for the non-CPMG SS-FSE DWI technique (P < .05). Overall lesion CNR was found to be higher in DWI with non-CPMG SS-FSE.

CONCLUSION: The non-CPMG SS-FSE technique provides a significant improvement to current EPI-based DWI of the spine. A study including a larger number of patients is required to determine the use of this DWI sequence as a supplementary tool to conventional MR imaging for increasing diagnostic confidence in spinal pathologic conditions.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. Y. Oner, L. Aggunlu, S. Akpek, T. Tali, and A. Celik Diffusion-Weighted Imaging of the Appendicular Skeleton with a Non Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill Single-Shot Fast Spin-Echo Sequence Am. J. Roentgenol., December 1, 2007; 189(6): 1494 - 1501. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]