Convex Optimized Diffusion Encoding (CODE) with M1-Nulling for Pancreatic Diffusion Weighted Imaging

Multi-shot DWI reduces image distortion while increasing SNR. More recently, motion-compensated diffusion encoding has been shown to reduce artifacts and improve ADC consistency in single-shot DWI. Motion-compensated multi-shot pancreatic DWI may also mitigate artifacts arising from shot-to-shot incoherence. Herein, we conducted a pilot study of multi-shot DWI of the pancreas with and without motion-compensated diffusion encoding. Image quality and artifacts were scored by expert radiologists. ADC values of different pancreatic anatomical segments were computed. Multi-shot DWI with motion-compensated gradient encoding increased homogeneity of signal intensity and ADC values across the pancreas.