The role of diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) as a biomarker has been the subject of active investigation in the field of breast radiology. By quantifying the random motion of water within a voxel of tissue, DWI provides indirect metrics that reveal cellularity and architectural features. Studies show that data obtained from DWI may provide information related to the characterization, prognosis, and treatment response of breast cancer. The incorporation of DWI in breast imaging demonstrates its potential to serve as a non-invasive tool to help guide diagnosis and treatment. In this review, current technical literature of diffusion-weighted breast imaging will be discussed, in addition to clinical applications, advanced techniques, and emerging use in the field of radiomics.

No abstract

No abstract

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) acquired with echo-planar imaging (EPI) is utilized in breast MRI protocols to evaluate cancer lesions. While clinical implementation is limited by the distortion artifacts which affect EPI, methods such as reverse polarity gradient (RPG) and data collection with reduced field-of-view (FOV) have been used to reduce distortion. Evaluating these methods in minimizing distortion for images acquired with parallel imaging (PI) is a promising approach to improve EPI-DWI breast imaging. Here, we evaluated the distortion magnitude of EPI-DWI data collected with and without PI on a breast phantom and tested the feasibility of this protocol in vivo.