Navigator-based slice tracking for multiband accelerated liver DWI

Motivation: Clinical liver diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) suffers from long measurement time and respiratory motion. Goal(s): Techniques to speed up the measurment time and compensate respiratory motion are needed. Approach: In this study, we employ a navigator-based slice tracking technique (NAV) to prospectively compensate for respiratory motion in multiband accelerated liver DWI. Results: When compared to measurement without NAV, we could show that motion was compensated in representative cases. We aslo found averaged coefficients of variation values (CoV) to be significantly lower than without NAV, thus confirming that NAV allows reduction of motion artifacts in DWI of the liver. Impact: This study demonstrates the feasibility of a NAV technique to reduce respiratory motion in multiband accelerated liver DWI.