OBJECTIVES This study aimed to examine the variability of intravoxel incoherent motion measurements acquired from reduced distributions of b values for breast tumors analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS The investigations were carried out on twenty-four patients with diagnosed breast tumors. A conventional unenhanced MRI and various IVIM series preset with different distributions of b values (0-1000 s/mm2) were performed. We assessed the variability in Dslow, Dfast, and PF measurements for different distributions of 9 to 4 b values compared with the IVIM metrics for 10 b values using Wilcoxon-Signed rank test. The data was statistically significant at P < 0.05. RESULTS The results showed no significant variation in the estimations of IVIM parameters in patients. However, the measurements acquired with the combination of 5 b values Showed some variation in Dfast (P = 0.028) compared with 10 b values. The data showed high wCVs in the measurements acquired using the reduced set of 6 b values for Dslow and PF and with the combination of 7 b values for Dfast. There were inconsistencies noticed in the measurements acquired from malignant tumors using reduced distributions of b values (9 b values-4 b values). However, the set of 4 b values displayed the lowest wCVs for both benign and malignant datasets. We also observed unsystematic correlations among different combinations of b values in the categories of IVIM parameters. CONCLUSION There was no relevant variation in the parameters measurements irrespective of the number of b values used. Reduced distributions of b values may find use in estimations of IVIM parameters for breast lesions analysis.

中文翻译：

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体内体素不连贯运动（IVIM）的优化：使用减少的b值分布进行乳腺肿瘤分析的参数测量可变性。

目的本研究旨在检查从减少的b值分布中获取的体素不相干运动测量结果的变异性，以进行乳腺肿瘤分析。材料与方法对24名确诊为乳腺肿瘤的患者进行了研究。执行了常规的未增强MRI和预设的b值（0-1000 s / mm2）不同分布的各种IVIM系列。我们使用Wilcoxon-Signed秩和检验评估了9s至4b值的不同分布在Dslow，Dfast和PF测量中的变异性，而对于10b值的IVIM度量则进行了评估。数据在P <0.05时具有统计学意义。结果结果表明，患者的IVIM参数估计值无明显变化。然而，与5 b值组合获得的测量结果显示，与10 b值相比，Dfast有所变化（P = 0.028）。数据显示，使用Dslow和PF的6b值的缩减集以及Dfast的7b值的组合，获得的测量值具有较高的wCV。使用减少的b值分布（9 b值-4 b值）从恶性肿瘤获得的测量结果中发现存在不一致之处。但是，这组4 b值显示了良性和恶性数据集的最低wCV。我们还观察到IVIM参数类别中b值的​​不同组合之间的非系统相关性。结论无论所用b值的数量如何，参数测量值均无相关变化。