Achievable Flow-Compensation Parameters on a Clinical 33 mT/m Wide-Bore Scanner for Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Imaging

Motivation: Can flow-compensated intravoxel incoherent motion be performed on a wide-bore scanner with a 33 mT/m gradient system?Goal(s): To find the shortest feasible diffusion encoding time for double diffusion encoding waveforms. Approach: Phantom measurements with various diffusion encoding times, with application of the optimal encoding times on in-vivo brain and prostate scans. Results: The shortest achievable encoding time was found to be 80 ms, with artefacts being the limiting factor. This encoding time was found to not be sufficiently short for brain imaging. For prostate imaging, it was found to be sufficient for imaging the transitional zone, but not the peripheral zone. Impact: Due to ghosting artefacts associated with higher gradient amplitudes, we found a diffusion encoding time of 80 ms to be the shortest practically feasible. This encoding time was shown to be insufficient for brain IVIM, and partially so for prostate.