Diffusion-weighted MRI of the spinal cord near metal implants: A rapid TSE approach with multispectral imaging and reduced field of view

Diffusion-weighted (DW) spinal cord MRI based on single-shot EPI suffers from strong geometric distortion and signal loss artifacts. While strategies have been developed to reduce these artifacts in DW-EPI, their application in spinal cord DWI is challenging when metal implants are present near the spine. A multispectral DW-PROPELLER has been proposed to overcome this challenge; however, this requires long scan times. In this work, we developed a single-shot TSE technique with multispectral imaging and reduced FOV to achieve fast speed / increased SNR for spinal cord DWI near metals. Volunteer and patient results demonstrated reduced artifacts and improved speed/SNR performance.