Initial exploration of the potential of diffusion-weighted MRS for the evaluation of prostate pathology

Prostate pathologies like cancer and prostatitis cause alterations in tissue microstructure that are reflected in signal variations on diffusion-weighted MRI or MR relaxometry. Diffusion-weighted MR Spectroscopy (DW-MRS) allows specific characterization of tissue microstructure by quantifying both concentration and diffusion properties of MR-observable metabolites. In this work, an optimized DW-MRS protocol tailored to overcome the inherent challenges of prostate measurements is deployed. Initial results on potential alterations of metabolite concentrations and diffusivities (ADCs) are reported for prostate cancer and prostatitis. The preliminary findings are tentatively explained by microstructure alterations of the prostate tissue.