Abstract：Objective To investigate the feasibility of simultaneous multi-slice diffusion weighted imaging (SMS-DWI) technique
in colon lesion in patients with Crohn’s disease. Methods A total of 15 patients with clinically diagnosed Crohn’s disease in our
hospital were collected. All patients underwent SMS-DWI and routine DWI imaging with b values of 50, 500 and 1000 s/mm2. Two
radiologists measured the signal intensity (SI) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of the intestinal wall and erector spinal
muscle of 24 lesions at SMS-DWI and conventional DWI sequences. The relative contrast to noise ratio (rCNR) of the intestinal
wall and erector ridge muscle of the two sequences were calculated, and the overall image quality and lesion significance of SMSDWI
and conventional DWI sequences were evaluated jointly when the b value was 500 s/mm2 and 1000 s/mm2. Paired sample t-test
or Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to compare the rCNR of diseased intestinal wall and muscle, ADC value of intestinal wall, the
overall quality and significance of lesions between SMS-DWI and routine DWI sequence. Results With b value 500 s/mm2, the
rCNR of SMS-DWI lesions and intestinal wall was lower (0.44±0.22) than that of conventional DWI sequence (0.53±0.14), and
the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05). When b value was 1000 s/mm2, the rCNR of SMS-DWI sequence lesions and
intestinal wall was lower (0.48±0.20) than that of conventional DWI sequence (0.60±0.13), and the difference was statistically
significant (P<0.05). ADC values of SMS-DWI sequence lesions were not statistically different from those of conventional DWI
sequence (P=0.185). When b value was 500 s/mm2 and 1000 s/mm2, there was no statistical difference in overall image quality and
lesion significance of SMS-DWI sequence (P>0.05). Conclusion MRI SMS-DWI is feasible to show colonic lesion in patients with
Crohn’s disease. The technique can effectively shorten the acquisition time, and the diagnostic efficiency and ADC value are similar
to those of routine DWI image.
