Navigator-free, high-resolution prostate diffusion imaging: Multi-Shot EPI with Multi-Scale Low-Rank Reconstruction

Motivation: Prostate DWI is an important contrast for the diagnosis of prostate cancer. Goal(s): The aim is to achieve prostate DW images and ADC maps with less-geometric-distortion, high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Approach: A novel multi-scale low-rank reconstruction approach is introduced to improve multi-shot EPI diffusion-weighted imaging of the prostate. It addresses the ability to jointly reconstruct images over all b-value/diffusion directions at multiple different spatial scales without loss of contrast/structure information. Results: Applied to healthy volunteers using different resolution protocols, the method demonstrates significant improvements in image resolution and SNR compared to a state-of-the-art reference method in a clinically acceptable scan time. Impact: This multi-scale, low-rank reconstruction approach for prostate DWI can significantly improve the quality of diagnostic images, benefiting clinicians and patients by enabling more accurate prostate cancer diagnoses within short scan times.