39 research outputs found
Recent Developments in Fast Kurtosis Imaging
Diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) is an extension of the popular diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) technique. DKI takes into account leading deviations from Gaussian diffusion stemming from a number of effects related to the microarchitecture and compartmentalization in biological tissues. DKI therefore offers increased sensitivity to subtle microstructural alterations over conventional diffusion imaging such as DTI, as has been demonstrated in numerous reports. For this reason, interest in routine clinical application of DKI is growing rapidly. In an effort to facilitate more widespread use of DKI, recent work by our group has focused on developing experimentally fast and robust estimates of DKI metrics. A significant increase in speed is made possible by a reduction in data demand achieved through rigorous analysis of the relation between the DKI signal and the kurtosis tensor based metrics. The fast DKI methods therefore need only 13 or 19 images for DKI parameter estimation compared to more than 60 for the most modest DKI protocols applied today. Closed form solutions also ensure rapid calculation of most DKI metrics. Some parameters can even be reconstructed in real time, which may be valuable in the clinic. The fast techniques are based on conventional diffusion sequences and are therefore easily implemented on almost any clinical system, in contrast to a range of other recently proposed advanced diffusion techniques. In addition to its general applicability, this also ensures that any acceleration achieved in conventional DKI through sequence or hardware optimization will also translate directly to fast DKI acquisitions. In this review, we recapitulate the theoretical basis for the fast kurtosis techniques and their relation to conventional DKI. We then discuss the currently available variants of the fast kurtosis techniques, their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their respective realms of application. These range from whole body applications to methods mostly suited for spinal cord or peripheral nerve, and analysis specific to brain white matter. Having covered these technical aspects, we proceed to review the fast kurtosis literature including validation studies, organ specific optimization studies and results from clinical applications
Double Diffusion Encoding Prevents Degeneracy in Parameter Estimation of Biophysical Models in Diffusion MRI
Purpose: Biophysical tissue models are increasingly used in the
interpretation of diffusion MRI (dMRI) data, with the potential to provide
specific biomarkers of brain microstructural changes. However, the general
Standard Model has recently shown that model parameter estimation from dMRI
data is ill-posed unless very strong magnetic gradients are used. We analyse
this issue for the Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging with
Diffusivity Assessment (NODDIDA) model and demonstrate that its extension from
Single Diffusion Encoding (SDE) to Double Diffusion Encoding (DDE) solves the
ill-posedness and increases the accuracy of the parameter estimation. Methods:
We analyse theoretically the cumulant expansion up to fourth order in b of SDE
and DDE signals. Additionally, we perform in silico experiments to compare SDE
and DDE capabilities under similar noise conditions. Results: We prove
analytically that DDE provides invariant information non-accessible from SDE,
which makes the NODDIDA parameter estimation injective. The in silico
experiments show that DDE reduces the bias and mean square error of the
estimation along the whole feasible region of 5D model parameter space.
Conclusions: DDE adds additional information for estimating the model
parameters, unexplored by SDE, which is enough to solve the degeneracy in the
NODDIDA model parameter estimation.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure
MP-PCA denoising of fMRI time-series data can lead to artificial activation "spreading"
MP-PCA denoising has become the method of choice for denoising in MRI since
it provides an objective threshold to separate the desired signal from unwanted
thermal noise components. In rodents, thermal noise in the coils is an
important source of noise that can reduce the accuracy of activation mapping in
fMRI. Further confounding this problem, vendor data often contains zero-filling
and other effects that may violate MP-PCA assumptions. Here, we develop an
approach to denoise vendor data and assess activation "spreading" caused by
MP-PCA denoising in rodent task-based fMRI data. Data was obtained from N = 3
mice using conventional multislice and ultrafast acquisitions (1 s and 50 ms
temporal resolution, respectively), during visual stimulation. MP-PCA denoising
produced SNR gains of 64% and 39% and Fourier spectral amplitude (FSA)
increases in BOLD maps of 9% and 7% for multislice and ultrafast data,
respectively, when using a small [2 2] denoising window. Larger windows
provided higher SNR and FSA gains with increased spatial extent of activation
that may or may not represent real activation. Simulations showed that MP-PCA
denoising causes activation "spreading" with an increase in false positive rate
and smoother functional maps due to local "bleeding" of principal components,
and that the optimal denoising window for improved specificity of functional
mapping, based on Dice score calculations, depends on the data's tSNR and
functional CNR. This "spreading" effect applies also to another recently
proposed low-rank denoising method (NORDIC). Our results bode well for
dramatically enhancing spatial and/or temporal resolution in future fMRI work,
while taking into account the sensitivity/specificity trade-offs of low-rank
denoising methods
Double diffusion encoding and applications for biomedical imaging
Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (dMRI) is one of the most important
contemporary non-invasive modalities for probing tissue structure at the
microscopic scale. The majority of dMRI techniques employ standard single
diffusion encoding (SDE) measurements, covering different sequence parameter
ranges depending on the complexity of the method. Although many signal
representations and biophysical models have been proposed for SDE data, they
are intrinsically limited by a lack of specificity. Advanced dMRI methods have
been proposed to provide additional microstructural information beyond what can
be inferred from SDE. These enhanced contrasts can play important roles in
characterizing biological tissues, for instance upon diseases (e.g.
neurodegenerative, cancer, stroke), aging, learning, and development.
In this review we focus on double diffusion encoding (DDE), which stands out
among other advanced acquisitions for its versatility, ability to probe more
specific diffusion correlations, and feasibility for preclinical and clinical
applications. Various DDE methodologies have been employed to probe compartment
sizes (Section 3), decouple the effects of microscopic diffusion anisotropy
from orientation dispersion (Section 4), probe displacement correlations, study
exchange, or suppress fast diffusing compartments (Section 6). DDE measurements
can also be used to improve the robustness of biophysical models (Section 5)
and study intra-cellular diffusion via magnetic resonance spectroscopy of
metabolites (Section 7). This review discusses all these topics as well as
important practical aspects related to the implementation and contrast in
preclinical and clinical settings (Section 9) and aims to provide the readers a
guide for deciding on the right DDE acquisition for their specific application
The roles of cerebral blood flow, capillary transit time heterogeneity, and oxygen tension in brain oxygenation and metabolism
Normal brain function depends critically on moment-to-moment regulation of oxygen supply by the bloodstream to meet changing metabolic needs. Neurovascular coupling, a range of mechanisms that converge on arterioles to adjust local cerebral blood flow (CBF), represents our current framework for understanding this regulation. We modeled the combined effects of CBF and capillary transit time heterogeneity (CTTH) on the maximum oxygen extraction fraction (OEFmax) and metabolic rate of oxygen that can biophysically be supported, for a given tissue oxygen tension. Red blood cell velocity recordings in rat brain support close hemodynamic–metabolic coupling by means of CBF and CTTH across a range of physiological conditions. The CTTH reduction improves tissue oxygenation by counteracting inherent reductions in OEFmax as CBF increases, and seemingly secures sufficient oxygenation during episodes of hyperemia resulting from cortical activation or hypoxemia. In hypoperfusion and states of blocked CBF, both lower oxygen tension and CTTH may secure tissue oxygenation. Our model predicts that disturbed capillary flows may cause a condition of malignant CTTH, in which states of higher CBF display lower oxygen availability. We propose that conditions with altered capillary morphology, such as amyloid, diabetic or hypertensive microangiopathy, and ischemia–reperfusion, may disturb CTTH and thereby flow-metabolism coupling and cerebral oxygen metabolism
Diffusion Tensor Imaging Detects Early Cerebral Cortex Abnormalities in Neuronal Architecture Induced by Bilateral Neonatal Enucleation: An Experimental Model in the Ferret
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a technique that non-invasively provides quantitative measures of water translational diffusion, including fractional anisotropy (FA), that are sensitive to the shape and orientation of cellular elements, such as axons, dendrites and cell somas. For several neurodevelopmental disorders, histopathological investigations have identified abnormalities in the architecture of pyramidal neurons at early stages of cerebral cortex development. To assess the potential capability of DTI to detect neuromorphological abnormalities within the developing cerebral cortex, we compare changes in cortical FA with changes in neuronal architecture and connectivity induced by bilateral enucleation at postnatal day 7 (BEP7) in ferrets. We show here that the visual callosal pattern in BEP7 ferrets is more irregular and occupies a significantly greater cortical area compared to controls at adulthood. To determine whether development of the cerebral cortex is altered in BEP7 ferrets in a manner detectable by DTI, cortical FA was compared in control and BEP7 animals on postnatal day 31. Visual cortex, but not rostrally adjacent non-visual cortex, exhibits higher FA than control animals, consistent with BEP7 animals possessing axonal and dendritic arbors of reduced complexity than age-matched controls. Subsequent to DTI, Golgi-staining and analysis methods were used to identify regions, restricted to visual areas, in which the orientation distribution of neuronal processes is significantly more concentrated than in control ferrets. Together, these findings suggest that DTI can be of utility for detecting abnormalities associated with neurodevelopmental disorders at early stages of cerebral cortical development, and that the neonatally enucleated ferret is a useful animal model system for systematically assessing the potential of this new diagnostic strategy