IVIM MRI as a Non-Contrast Perfusion Imaging Modality: What to Expect
Member-Initiated Symposium

ORGANIZERS: Jacobus Jansen, Oliver Gurney-Champion, Amita Shukla-Dave

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Session Number: MIS-17

Overview
The Intravoxel Incoherent Motion (IVIM) MRI concept was introduced in the mid-1980s together with diffusion MRI, as it was immediately realized that MRI diffusion measurements could also be sensitive to blood microcirculation in capillary vessels. The idea that blood microcirculation could be seen as a pseudo-diffusion phenomenon, due to the pseudo-random organization of capillary vessels in space, was perceived as provocative at the time and, not surprisingly, the concept was not well understood.

IVIM MRI has survived and been refined and has gradually made its way to the clinical MRI world. 30 years later, the seminal IVIM Radiology 1986 article has become the 5th most-cited article of all time in the radiology field. Due to the tremendous technical improvement of MRI scanners, IVIM MRI has become available for clinical applications, with great potential in oncology, as a non-contrast perfusion imaging modality. Indeed, the approach has sufficiently grown in both depth of contrast
and breadth of application beyond its original concept. Hence, we thought it is a good time to summarize some of the currently available knowledge, either methodological or clinical, on IVIM MRI, to help clinicians and/or researchers to use and further advance the field. In this symposium, speakers will critically assess the following: 1) the underlying assumptions of the IVIM model and potential validation strategies; 2) its value for research and clinical applications; and 3) future improvements.

Target Audience
Clinicians and researchers that would like to gain a useful, practical understanding of the underlying principles and possible applications of IVIM.

Educational Objectives
As a result of attending this course, participants should be able to:
- Outline the past, present and future of clinical IVIM;
- Recognize the the merits of IVIM: does it provide true quantitative perfusion measures, or rather tissue contrasts of a more complex nature?;
- Develop the optimal strategy for data acquisition and analysis to yield useful data; and
- Assess confounding factors and pitfalls of IVIM perfusion imaging.