Multi-Scanner Reproducibility of IVIM Quantification in the Liver using Pseudo-Diffusion and Physical IVIM Signal Models

Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) quantification in the liver suffers from instability associated with separating multiple decaying signal components sampled along a single dimension (b-value). In this work, monopolar and 2D (b-value and first-order motion moment (M1)) noise-optimized IVIM-DWI acquisitions were acquired on three MR scanners with different MR gradient hardware. From each acquisition, IVIM estimates were obtained using pseudo-diffusion and physical (M1 dependent) IVIM signal models. Inter-scanner reproducibility and interlobar agreement were compared across acquisitions and models. 2D (b-M1) IVIM-DWI acquisitions combined with physical IVIM signal modeling improved reproducibility of IVIM quantification in comparison to monopolar acquisitions and pseudo-diffusion modeling.