Distortion-Free Diffusion-Weighted Imaging of the Prostate Using TGSE-Based Golden-Angle PROPELLER Acquisition and Deep Learning Denoising

Motivation: Clinical single shot EPI-DWI suffers from low resolution and geometric distortion. Goal(s): To achieve distortion-free, high-resolution prostate DWI within the same or shorter scan time as the clinical routine. Approach: We developed a novel Turbo Gradient Spin Echo (TGSE) PROPELLER DWI acquisition scheme for prostate imaging, incorporating a self-supervised model for denoising. Blades corresponding to the same b-values are combined to produce b50 and b1000 images for ADC fitting. Results: DWI images generated with TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI are distortion-free, even in cases with metal implants or strong air-tissue induced B0 inhomogeneity. Higher-than-clinical resolution is achievable with the same scan time. Impact: TGSE-PROPELLER-DWI with a novel acquisition scheme provides distortion-free, high-resolution prostate DWI within the same scan time as the clinical protocol, with potential for further scan time reduction.