Quantitative Whole-Body Diffusion-Weighted MR Imaging

Abstract

Whole-body diffusion-weighted MRI has emerged as a powerful diagnostic tool for disease detection and staging mainly used in systemic bone disease. The large field-of-view functional imaging technique highlights cellular tumor and suppresses normal tissue signal, allowing quantification of an estimate of total disease burden, summarized as the total diffusion volume (tDV), as well as global apparent diffusion coefficient (gADC) measurements. Both tDV and gADC have been shown to be repeatable quantitative parameters that indicate tumor heterogeneity and treatment effects, thus potential, noninvasive, imaging biomarkers informing on disease prognosis and therapy response.

Keywords: DWI; Diffusion; MR Imaging; Quantitative; Whole body.