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Noise reduction in diffusion tensor imaging of the brachial plexus using single-shot DW-EPI with Compressed SENSE

Takayuki Sada¹, Hajime Yokota², Takafumi Yoda¹, Ryuna Kurosawa¹, Koji Matsumoto¹, Takashi Namiki³, Masami Yoneyama³, Yoshitada Masuda¹, and Takashi Uno²
¹Department of Radiology, Chiba University Hospital, Chiba, Japan, ²Diagnostic Radiology and Radiation Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan, ³Philips Japan, Tokyo, Japan

We compared EPICS, SENSE, and SENSE×2 (same conditions as SENSE with increased NEX) in the brachial plexus region, and DTI using EPICS was a robust imaging method with better reproducibility of ADC FA values than SENSE and SENSE×2.

Figure 5. (Upper column) An example of noise-like artifacts in SENSE. The nerve root region is noisy, which may contribute to the reduced coefficients of variation in this region. (Lower column) There is a lot of noise in the area outside the nerve root. In the region of noise, ADC value is low and FA value is high. When the ROI is placed outside the nerve, the values are greatly shifted. It is important to draw ROIs on noise-free images.

Figure 3.(Upper column) Fractional anisotropy (FA) and coefficient of variance (CVFA) of EPICS, SENSE, and SENSE×2. FA was significantly different among the three protocols, and CVFA was significantly smaller in EPICS and SENSE than in SENSE×2. (Lower column) Focusing on the nerve roots, FA in EPICS was significantly smaller and CVFA was smaller than SENSE.