Diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background suppression (DWIBS) (Whole-body DWI)
On Feb 26, 2022 Nippon Television program (The most desirable lecture in the world !! Japan’s great medical care !!) reported that DWIBS is the ultimate examination which it can detect every type of cancer in the whole body with only one DWIBS scan. Surprisingly, a patient is able to eat before a DWIBS scan, unlike other diagnostic methods available.
The research group of Professor Dr. Taro Takahara and Professor Dr. Yutaka Imai of Tokai University have developed an epoch-making method, diffusion-weighted whole-body imaging with background suppression (DWIBS) which can search a whole body with one MRI (DWI) exploration in 2004. The diagnostic ability of PET-CT and that of DWIBS are similar. Some diagnostic abilities are better in DWIBS than in PET-CT, others are better in PET-CT than DWIBS. However, patients cannot receive a PET-CT more than once a year on health insurance because it is expensive, approximately ¥30,000 （30,000 JPY） with a 30% deductible. On the other hand, DWIBS is an MR imaging so we do not need a contrast medium. Therefore, a patient can get an MRI once every one to three months on health insurance.
We presented the positive aspects of DWIBS compared to PET-CT again (Table 60). Also, we showed a comparison between DWIBS and PET-CT again (Table 61).
Table 60
Table 61
