High-resolution 3D Multislab DWI for the Diagnosis of Acute Stroke

Motivation: Conventional low-resolution 2D DWI has limited diagnosis accuracy in stroke patients. Goal(s): Our goal was to apply high-resolution 3D DWI in stroke patients and assess its diagnostic capabilities compared to low-resolution 2D DWI. Approach: We employed simultaneous multislab imaging for 3D diffusion signal sampling, utilizing opposite phase encoding polarity for distortion correction and CPEN for boundary artifact correction. We conducted examinations on 15 acute stroke patients. Results: The utilization of high-resolution 3D DWI with isotropic resolution significantly enhances image quality in terms of clarity, distortion levels, and clinical value, surpassing traditional 2D DWI. Impact: High-resolution isotropic 3D DWI, using simultaneous multislab acquisitions, may help in the identification of small brain lesions that may be challenging to detect using low-resolution 2D DWI.