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q ‐Space diffusion MRI (QSI) of the disease progression in the spinal cords of the Long Evans shaker: diffusion time and apparent anisotropy
Author(s) -
Anaby Debbie,
Duncan Ian D.,
Smith Chelsey M.,
Cohen Yoram
Publication year - 2013
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.3043
Subject(s) - shaker , diffusion , diffusion mri , anisotropy , nuclear magnetic resonance , fractional anisotropy , anisotropic diffusion , medicine , space (punctuation) , magnetic resonance imaging , pathology , physics , radiology , optics , computer science , acoustics , thermodynamics , vibration , operating system
q ‐Space diffusion MRI (QSI) was used to study the spinal cords of Long Evans shaker ( les ) rats, a model of dysmyelination, and their age‐matched controls at different maturation stages. Diffusion was measured parallel and perpendicular to the fibers of the spinal cords of the two groups and at different diffusion times. The results showed that QSI is able to detect the dysmyelination process that occurs in this model in the different stages of the disease. The differences in the diffusion characteristics of the spinal cords of the two groups were found to be larger when the diffusion time was increased from 22 to 100 ms. We found that the radial mean displacement is a much better parameter than the QSI fractional anisotropy (FA) to document the differences between the two groups. We observed that the degree of myelination affects the diffusion characteristics of the tissues, but has a smaller effect on FA. All of the extracted diffusion parameters that are affected by the degree of myelination are affected in a diffusion time‐dependent fashion, suggesting that the terms apparent anisotropy, apparent fractional anisotropy and even apparent root‐mean‐square displacement (rmsD) are more appropriate. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.