Distortionless, free-breathing, and respiratory resolved 3D diffusion weighted imaging of the abdomen

Abdominal imaging is frequently performed with uncomfortable breath holds, or respiratory triggering to reduce the effects of respiratory motion. Diffusion weighted sequences provide a useful clinical contrast but have prolonged scan times due to low SNR. These scans cannot be reliably completed in a single breath hold, and respiratory triggering has low scan efficiency. We present a respiratory resolved, diffusion-prepared 3D sequence that obtains distortionless diffusion weighted images during free-breathing. We describe techniques to address the myriad of challenges including: 3D shot-to-shot phase correction, respiratory binning, diffusion encoding during free-breathing, and robustness to off-resonance.