Open AccessPrinciples and limitations of NMR diffusion measurements
Author(s) -
Jan Hrabě,
Gurjinder Kaur,
David N. Guilfoyle
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of medical physics/journal of medical physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.292
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1998-3913
pISSN - 0971-6203
DOI - 10.4103/0971-6203.31148
Subject(s) - diffusion mri , diffusion , attenuation , signal (programming language) , partial differential equation , tracking (education) , sequence (biology) , mathematics , statistical physics , computer science , physics , mathematical analysis , optics , medicine , chemistry , quantum mechanics , radiology , psychology , pedagogy , biochemistry , magnetic resonance imaging , programming language
Diffusion spectroscopy, imaging and particularly diffusion tensor imaging have become popular thanks to their numerous clinical and research applications which span from brain stroke evaluation to fiber tracking. With a few exceptions, these methods are rooted in the classic Stejskal-Tanner formula for the diffusion-attenuated signal, usually obtained by solving the Bloch-Torrey partial differential equations. Here we derive the Stejskal-Tanner formula in the simplest possible manner, avoiding integrals and differential equations. This approach makes it easy to understand the origin of the diffusion signal attenuation, the effects of various diffusion sequence parameters, and also the numerous important pitfalls, which are discussed in the last section.