The investigation of reduced field-of-view diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma: comparison with conventional DWI

Background: Field-of-view optimized and constrained undistorted single-shot imaging (FOCUS) is a new sequence that shows enhanced anatomical details, improving the diffusion-weighted (DW) images. Purpose: To investigate the value of FOCUS diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the evaluation of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and compare it with the single-shot echo planner imaging (SS-EPI) DWI approach. Material and Methods: A total of 87 patients with NPC underwent magnetic resonance imaging, including FOCUS and SS-EPI DWI sequences. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), signal-intensity ratio (SIR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values of the nasopharyngeal lesions were measured and compared. According to the clinical stages of patients, T and N were divided into early and advanced stage groups, respectively. The mean ADC values of the two techniques were computed, and the area under the curve (AUC) was estimated to calculate the diagnostic efficiency. Results: Subjective and objective image qualitative values of FOCUS were significantly higher than those of SS-EPI. The ADC values for FOCUS of early T and N stages were significantly lower than those of the advanced stages. Conclusion: FOCUS provides significantly better image quality in NPC compared to SS-EPI, with lower ADC values for early-stage disease than late-stage disease.