Technical limitations and pitfalls of diffusion-weighted imaging in intraoperative high-field MRI

Objective: Image quality in high-field intraoperative MRI (iMRI) is often influenced negatively by susceptibility artifacts. While routine sequences are rather robust, advanced imaging such as diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) is very sensitive to susceptibility resulting in insufficient imaging data. This study aims to analyze intraoperatively acquired DWI to identify the main factors for susceptibility, to compare results with postoperative images and to identify technical aspects for improvement of intraoperative DWI.