Table 2.
Bolded items 1.5T and 3T, Consensus result in columns for routine clinical/multi-centre trial. +, agree but no consensus; *, agree with consensus; **, strongly agree with consensus. Italics indicate round table consensus
| Clinical | Trial | |
| Acquisition Protocol | ||
| Do not use intrinsic body coil as a receiver coil | ** | ** |
| Axial from cranial vertex to mid-thigh | ** | ** |
| Total acquisition time < 30 mins | ** | ** |
| Free breathing | ||
| In-plane acquisition pixel size ≥ 3 × 3 mm (matrix 128 × 128 FoV ~ 380 × 420) | * | * |
| Minimum slice thickness = 5 mm | * | * |
| 40–50 slices per bed station | * | * |
| Single shot EPI (Contiguous slices, interleaved) | ** | ** |
| Parallel imaging (Reduction factor = 2) | ||
| Fat suppression method = STIR (160 ms <TI < 180 ms) | * | ** |
| Minimum number of b-values = 2 | ||
| b-values = 50–100 s mm–2, 800–1000 s mm–2 | * | * |
| Diffusion weighted images: trace weighted | + | + |
| Number of averages = 3 (more at higher b value if possible, dependent on grad encode scheme) | + | * |
| TE < 95 ms | ||
| TR ≥ 5×T1 of tissue of interest | ||
| Optimisation Protocol | ||
| Always perform initial optimisation on suitable test object: | * | ** |
| minimally diffusing, (or doped water) | * | ** |
| known ADC values, | * | ** |
| controlled temperature (e.g. iced water phantom) | * | ** |
| larger than total number of slices (per bed station) | * | ** |
| Minimise the: | ||
| Static field distortion | * | ** |
| eddy-current induced distortion | * | ** |
| ghosting | ** | ** |
| Optimise fat suppression on human volunteers | * | ** |
| Assess repeatability and reproducibility for multi-centre trials on human volunteers | + | ** |
| Routine Quality Assurance | ||
| Routine QC measurements should be performed and recorded | ** | ** |
| Not necessary to test daily or weekly | + | + |
| every 3 months | * | * |
| after software/hardware upgrades | ** | ** |
| after repairs/maintenance | * | * |
| Routine Quality control measurements should be performed with a suitable test object: | ||
| iced water | + | * |
| sugar/(doped)water at room temperature | + | * |
| Routine Quality control tests | ||
| ADC linearity in Z-direction across all slices in bed station | + | * |
| Static field distortion | + | * |
| Eddy-current induced distortion | + | * |
| Ghosting | + | * |
ADC, apparent diffusion coefficient; FOV, field of view; TE, echo time; TR, repetition time; QA, quality assurance; QC, quality control; STIR, short tau inversion-recovery.