Impact of field strength and RF excitation on abdominal diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

Table 5 Ghosting artifact: Median values and percent of diagnostic studies

Ghosting	Median-Patients		Median-Volunteers		No loss in diagnostic value		Non-diagnostic/low diagnostic value
	Reader 1	Reader 2	Reader 1	Reader 2	Patients	Volunteers	Patients	Volunteers
non-dpTX 3.0T	1	1	2	1.5	44%	80%	56%	20%
dpTX 3.0T	2	2	2	2	98%	100%	2%	0%
1.5T	2	2	2	2	100%	100%	0%	0%

The left half of the table depicts mean values as rated by the two radiologists based on the 3-point ordinal scale in which “3” = no ghosting, “2” = ghosting not interfering with diagnostic image interpretation, “1” = severe ghosting interfering with diagnostic interpretation. The right half of the table illustrates the percentage of images deemed to have “No loss in diagnostic value” (scored as ≥ 2) vs“Non-diagnositc/Low Diagnostic Value” (scored as 1). Numbers in bold are statistically different from the other two numbers within the column.