• Ivan Jambor, Harri Merisaari, Hannu J Aronen, Jukka Järvinen, Jani Saunavaara, Tommi Kauko, Ronald Borra, and Marko Pesola.
• Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland; 2nd Department of Radiology, Comenius University and St. Elisabeth Oncology Institute, Bratislava, Slovakia.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2014 May 1; 39 (5): 1213-22.

PurposeTo determine the optimal b-value distribution for biexponential diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of normal prostate using both a computer modeling approach and in vivo measurements.Materials And MethodsOptimal b-value distributions for the fit of three parameters (fast diffusion Df, slow diffusion Ds, and fraction of fast diffusion f) were determined using Monte-Carlo simulations. The optimal b-value distribution was calculated using four individual optimization methods. Eight healthy volunteers underwent four repeated 3 Tesla prostate DWI scans using both 16 equally distributed b-values and an optimized b-value distribution obtained from the simulations. The b-value distributions were compared in terms of measurement reliability and repeatability using Shrout-Fleiss analysis.ResultsUsing low noise levels, the optimal b-value distribution formed three separate clusters at low (0-400 s/mm2), mid-range (650-1200 s/mm2), and high b-values (1700-2000 s/mm2). Higher noise levels resulted into less pronounced clustering of b-values. The clustered optimized b-value distribution demonstrated better measurement reliability and repeatability in Shrout-Fleiss analysis compared with 16 equally distributed b-values.ConclusionThe optimal b-value distribution was found to be a clustered distribution with b-values concentrated in the low, mid, and high ranges and was shown to improve the estimation quality of biexponential DWI parameters of in vivo experiments.Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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