Measuring random microscopic motion of water in tissues with MR imaging: a cat brain study.

D. Le Bihan (1, 2) , C. T. Moonen (3, 4, 5) , P. C. van Zijl , J. Pekar (6) , D. Despres (3)

1 NIH - National Institutes of Health [Bethesda, MD, USA]
2 NEUROSPIN - Service NEUROSPIN
3 Department of Health and Human Services
4 Imagerie moléculaire et fonctionnelle: de la physiologie à la thérapie
5 Imagerie moléculaire et fonctionnelle: de la physiologie à la thérapie
6 Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics

Cat brain images sensitized to incoherent motion by additional gradient pulses were obtained on a 4.7 T magnetic resonance unit equipped with shielded gradient coils. The apparent diffusion coefficient of water in gray and white matter was accurately determined and imaged from the signal attenuation curve obtained as a function of gradient strength. Contrast in calculated diffusion images differed from typical T2-weighted contrast. Furthermore, in gray matter and in areas containing flowing CSF the attenuation curve was found to be biexponential. These results are interpreted in terms of a simple voxel model with microcirculation and diffusion contributions.

Domaines: Imagerie

D. Le Bihan, C. T. Moonen, P. C. van Zijl, J. Pekar, D. Despres. Measuring random microscopic motion of water in tissues with MR imaging: a cat brain study.. Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography / Journal of Computer-Assisted Tomography, 1991, 15 (1), pp.19-25. ⟨hal-00350076⟩