• Yun Ju Kim, Sung Hun Kim, Bong Joo Kang, Chang Suk Park, Hyeon Sook Kim, Yo Han Son, David Andrew Porter, and Byung Joo Song.
• Department of Radiology, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-701, Korea.
• Korean J Radiol. 2014 Jul 1; 15 (4): 403-10.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to compare the image quality of standard single-shot echo-planar imaging (ss-EPI) and that of readout-segmented EPI (rs-EPI) in patients with breast cancer.Materials And MethodsSeventy-one patients with 74 breast cancers underwent both ss-EPI and rs-EPI. For qualitative comparison of image quality, three readers independently assessed the two sets of diffusion-weighted (DW) images. To evaluate geometric distortion, a comparison was made between lesion lengths derived from contrast enhanced MR (CE-MR) images and those obtained from the corresponding DW images. For assessment of image parameters, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), lesion contrast, and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were calculated.ResultsThe rs-EPI was superior to ss-EPI in most criteria regarding the qualitative image quality. Anatomical structure distinction, delineation of the lesion, ghosting artifact, and overall image quality were significantly better in rs-EPI. Regarding the geometric distortion, lesion length on ss-EPI was significantly different from that of CE-MR, whereas there were no significant differences between CE-MR and rs-EPI. The rs-EPI was superior to ss-EPI in SNR and CNR.ConclusionReadout-segmented EPI is superior to ss-EPI in the aspect of image quality in DW MR imaging of the breast.

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