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Molecular diffusion, tissue microdynamics and microstructure
Author(s) -
Bihan Denis Le
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
nmr in biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.278
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1099-1492
pISSN - 0952-3480
DOI - 10.1002/nbm.1940080711
Subject(s) - diffusion mri , diffusion , anisotropy , nuclear magnetic resonance , molecular diffusion , nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy , permeability (electromagnetism) , microstructure , membrane permeability , anisotropic diffusion , materials science , chemical physics , chemistry , membrane , crystallography , magnetic resonance imaging , physics , thermodynamics , optics , biochemistry , radiology , medicine , metric (unit) , operations management , economics
Diffusion NMR is the only method available today that noninvasively provides information on molecular displacements over distances comparable to cell dimensions. This information can be used to infer tissue microstructure and microdynamics. However, data may be fairly difficult to interpret in biological tissues which differ markedly from the theoretical “infinite isotrope medium”, as many factors may affect the NMR signal. The object of this paper is to analyze the expected effects of temperature, restriction, hindrance, membrane permeability, anisotropy and tissue inhomogeneity on the diffusion measurements. Powerful methods, such as q‐space imaging, diffusion tensor imaging and diffusion spectroscopy of metabolites further enhance the specificity of the information obtained from diffusion NMR experiments.