The Efficacy of Short Repetition Time DWI in Highlighting Prostate Cancer

Motivation: Assessing whether short repetition time (TR) diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) surpasses conventional long TR DWI for prostate cancer detection. Goal(s): To compare the image quality and diagnostic accuracy of short TR DWI to long TR DWI using a 3.0-Tesla MRI. Approach: Twenty-five prostate cancer patients were imaged with both short (1850 ms) and long (6000 ms) TR DWI. We analyzed signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), with additional qualitative diagnostic assessments. Results: Short TR DWI yielded higher CNR and visual scores with stable SNR, alongside robust ADC correlations, enhancing diagnostic performance notably for non-specialist readers. Impact: Short repetition time diffusion-weighted imaging's improved prostate cancer detection could enhance diagnostic performance for non-specialist readers, influencing treatment and patient outcomes. It invites new magnetic resonance imaging research and may transform standard prostate cancer diagnostic protocols, reducing unnecessary invasive procedures.