The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical feasibility of deep learning reconstruction-accelerated thin-slice single-breath-hold half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin echo imaging (HASTE_DL) for detecting pancreatic lesions, in comparison with two conventional T2-weighted imaging sequences: compressed-sensing HASTE (HASTE_CS) and BLADE.

From March 2022 to January 2023, a total of 63 patients with suspected pancreatic-related disease underwent the HASTE_DL, HASTE_CS, and BLADE sequences were enrolled in this retrospectively study. The acquisition time, the pancreatic lesion conspicuity (LC_P), respiratory motion artifact (RMA), main pancreatic duct conspicuity (MPDC), overall image quality (OIQ), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-noise-ratio (CNR) of the pancreatic lesions were compared among the three sequences by two readers.

The acquisition time of both HASTE_DL and HASTE_CS was 16 s, which was significantly shorter than that of 102 s for BLADE. In terms of qualitative parameters, Reader 1 and Reader 2 assigned significantly higher scores to the LC_P, RMA, MPDC, and OIQ for HASTE_DL compared to HASTE_CS and BLADE sequences; As for the quantitative parameters, the SNR values of the pancreatic head, body, tail, and lesions, the CNR of the pancreatic lesion measured by the two readers were also significantly higher for HASTE_DL than for HASTE_CS and BLADE sequences.

Compared to conventional T2WI sequences (HASTE_CS and BLADE), deep-learning reconstructed HASTE enables thin slice and single-breath-hold acquisition with clinical acceptable image quality for detection of pancreatic lesions.