A Framework for Calculating Time-Efficient Diffusion MRI Protocols for Anisotropic IVIM and An Application in the Placenta

We develop a framework for calculating clinically-viable diffusion MRI (dMRI) protocols for anisotropic IVIM modelling. The proposed multi-stage framework combines previous approaches to dMRI protocol optimisation: first optimising b-values by minimizing Cramer-Rao lower bounds on parameter variances, and subsequently optimising gradient directions jointly to provide maximum angular coverage across all shells. This removes unnecessary measurements of closely spaced b-values with the same gradient directions, which encode very similar information, and hence reduces the total number of dMRI measurements. We applied the framework to establish an organ-specific, data-driven, set of optimised b-values and gradient directions for dMRI of the placenta. The optimised protocol leads to higher contrast-to-noise ratios in parameter maps compared to a naive protocol of comparable scan time. Applying this framework in other organs has the potential to reduce scanning times required for anisotropic IVIM modelling.