A Framework for Calculating Time-Efficient Diffusion MRI Protocols for Anisotropic IVIM and An Application in the Placenta

Paddy J. Slator*, Jana Hutter, Andrada Ianus, Eleftheria Panagiotaki, Mary A. Rutherford, Joseph V. Hajnal, Daniel C. Alexander

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to conference typesAbstractpeer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We develop a framework for calculating clinically-viable diffusion MRI (dMRI) protocols for anisotropic IVIM modelling. The proposed multi-stage framework combines previous approaches to dMRI protocol optimisation: first optimising b-values by minimizing Cramer-Rao lower bounds on parameter variances, and subsequently optimising gradient directions jointly to provide maximum angular coverage across all shells. This removes unnecessary measurements of closely spaced b-values with the same gradient directions, which encode very similar information, and hence reduces the total number of dMRI measurements. We applied the framework to establish an organ-specific, data-driven, set of optimised b-values and gradient directions for dMRI of the placenta. The optimised protocol leads to higher contrast-to-noise ratios in parameter maps compared to a naive protocol of comparable scan time. Applying this framework in other organs has the potential to reduce scanning times required for anisotropic IVIM modelling.

Original languageEnglish
Pages251-263
Number of pages13
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 3 May 2019
EventInternational Workshop on Computational Diffusion MRI, CDMRI 2018 held with International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2018 - Granada, Spain
Duration: 20 Sept 201820 Sept 2018

Conference

ConferenceInternational Workshop on Computational Diffusion MRI, CDMRI 2018 held with International Conference on Medical Image Computing and Computer Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2018
Country/TerritorySpain
CityGranada
Period20/09/201820/09/2018

Keywords

  • Anisotropic IVIM
  • Cramer-Rao lower bound
  • Diffusion MRI
  • Experimental design
  • IVIM
  • Microstructural modelling
  • Placenta

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