Simultaneous Acquisition of Diffusion Tensor and Dynamic Diffusion MRI.

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Diffusion MRI techniques

Background:

• Dynamic diffusion MRI (ddMRI) offers insights into transient microstructural changes by assessing tissue diffusivity.
• However, the extended scan time required for ddMRI hinders its widespread clinical adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate a diffusion gradient table designed for simultaneous acquisition of both dynamic and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) metrics.
• This aims to streamline the MRI acquisition process.

Main Methods:

• A prospective study involving 7 healthy subjects and 39 epilepsy patients.
• Utilized 3T 2D diffusion MRI sequences with a b-value of 1000 s/mm².
• Compared standard ddMRI and DTI protocols with a novel 'nested cubes' acquisition scheme.

Main Results:

• Strong and significant correlations (ICC > 0.95) were observed for DTI metrics (MD, AD, RD, FA) between standard and nested cubes acquisitions in both gray and white matter.
• Modest but significant correlations (ICC > 0.60) were found for the coefficients of variation of dynamic ADC in gray matter.

Conclusions:

• A nested cubes diffusion gradient table enables the simultaneous acquisition of tensor-based and dynamic diffusion measurements within a single MRI session.
• This technique shows promise for enhancing the efficiency and clinical utility of diffusion MRI.