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A time‐efficient acquisition protocol for multipurpose diffusion‐weighted microstructural imaging at 7 Tesla
Author(s) -
Sepehrband Farshid,
O'Brien Kieran,
Barth Markus
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.26608
Subject(s) - diffusion mri , fractional anisotropy , protocol (science) , diffusion , diffusion imaging , magnetic resonance imaging , computer science , angular resolution (graph drawing) , gold standard (test) , white matter , isotropy , effective diffusion coefficient , range (aeronautics) , nuclear magnetic resonance , data acquisition , materials science , biomedical engineering , mathematics , physics , medicine , radiology , optics , statistics , alternative medicine , pathology , combinatorics , composite material , thermodynamics , operating system
Purpose Several diffusion‐weighted MRI techniques have been developed and validated during the past 2 decades. While offering various neuroanatomical inferences, these techniques differ in their proposed optimal acquisition design, preventing clinicians and researchers benefiting from all potential inference methods, particularly when limited time is available. This study reports an optimal design that enables for a time‐efficient diffusion‐weighted MRI acquisition scheme at 7 Tesla. The primary audience of this article is the typical end user , interested in diffusion‐weighted microstructural imaging at 7 Tesla. Methods We tested b‐values in the range of 700 to 3000 s/mm 2 with different number of angular diffusion‐encoding samples, against a data‐driven “gold standard.” Results The suggested design is a protocol with b‐values of 1000 and 2500 s/mm 2 , with 25 and 50 samples, uniformly distributed over two shells. We also report a range of protocols in which the results of fitting microstructural models to the diffusion‐weighted data had high correlation with the gold standard. Conclusion We estimated minimum acquisition requirements that enable diffusion tensor imaging, higher angular resolution diffusion‐weighted imaging, neurite orientation dispersion, and density imaging and white matter tract integrity across whole brain with isotropic resolution of 1.8 mm in less than 11 min. Magn Reson Med 78:2170–2184, 2017. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.