Improved fat suppression of TSE-DWI in the head-neck using enhanced slice-selective gradient reversal (enhanced LIPO)

Motivation: TSE-DWI provides distortion-free images, but it has a disadvantage in terms of its low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). TSE-DWI basically requires several signal averages to obtain sufficient SNR, resulting in long scan time. Goal(s): We modified and optimized the LIPO selective gradients (enhanced LIPO) to maximize the fat suppression effect for TSE-DWI in the neck, and compared with conventional methods (SPAIR TSE-DWI and LION TSE-DWI) to investigate its clinical usefulness. Approach: SNR and CR were calculated with ROIs placed in parotid gland and fat around neck. Results: Combining TSE-DWI with enhanced LION improves the robustness of fat suppression while maintaining better SNR. Impact: The present findings suggest that both conventional and enhanced LION TSE-DWI showed improved SNR because it does not require fat suppression pre-pulse. Furthermore, enhanced LION further improved the robustness of fat suppression.