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In vivo microscopic diffusional kurtosis imaging with symmetrized double diffusion encoding EPI
Author(s) -
Ji Yang,
Paulsen Jeffrey,
Zhou Iris Yuwen,
Lu Dongshuang,
Machado Patrick,
Qiu Bensheng,
Song YiQiao,
Sun Phillip Zhe
Publication year - 2019
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.27419
Subject(s) - kurtosis , imaging phantom , nuclear magnetic resonance , diffusion mri , in vivo , voxel , diffusion , magnetic resonance imaging , biological system , nuclear medicine , biology , physics , medicine , radiology , mathematics , statistics , microbiology and biotechnology , thermodynamics
Purpose Diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) measures the deviation of the displacement probability from a normal distribution, complementing the data commonly acquired by diffusion MRI. It is important to elucidate the sources of kurtosis contrast, particularly in biological tissues where microscopic kurtosis (intrinsic kurtosis) and diffusional heterogeneity may co‐exist. Methods We have developed a technique for microscopic kurtosis MRI, dubbed microscopic diffusional kurtosis imaging (µDKI), using a symmetrized double diffusion encoding (s‐DDE) EPI sequence. We compared this newly developed µDKI to conventional DKI methods in both a triple compartment phantom and in vivo. Results Our results showed that whereas conventional DKI and µDKI provided similar measurements in a compartment of monosphere beads, kurtosis measured by µDKI was significantly less than that measured by conventional DKI in a compartment of mixed Gaussian pools. For in vivo brain imaging, µDKI showed small yet significantly lower kurtosis measurement in regions of the cortex, CSF, and internal capsule compared to the conventional DKI approach. Conclusions Our study showed that µDKI is less susceptible than conventional DKI to sub‐voxel diffusional heterogeneity. Our study also provided important preliminary demonstration of our technique in vivo, warranting future studies to investigate its diagnostic use in examining neurological disorders.