Designing a clinical diffusion MRI acquisition to measure white matter damage in paediatric brain tumour patients

Motivation: Children with brain tumours often face neurocognitive deficits. Determining if white matter injury is due to the tumour or treatment could facilitate tailoring therapies. Goal(s): To assess if shorter diffusion MRI protocols can reliably detect white matter abnormalities, allowing for faster, clinically feasible scanning. Approach: White matter abnormalities were evaluated using tract-based spatial statistics across 3 diffusion MRI acquisitions, comparing patients to age- and sex-matched healthy controls with a one-against-many analysis. Results: Shorter diffusion MRI acquisitions were nearly as effective as longer ones in detecting white matter abnormalities, reducing scan times from approximately 8 minutes to 2 minutes. Impact: This study demonstrates that shorter diffusion MRI protocols can reliably detect white matter abnormalities, facilitating the integration of diffusion MRI into clinical workflows. This could support personalised treatment planning in paediatric brain tumour care and improve patient outcomes.