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Spatially resolved kinetics of skeletal muscle exercise response and recovery with multiple echo diffusion tensor imaging (MEDITI): a feasibility study

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Abstract

Objectives

We describe measurement of skeletal muscle kinetics with multiple echo diffusion tensor imaging (MEDITI). This approach allows characterization of the microstructural dynamics in healthy and pathologic muscle.

Materials and methods

In a Siemens 3-T Skyra scanner, MEDITI was used to collect dynamic DTI with a combination of rapid diffusion encoding, radial imaging, and compressed sensing reconstruction in a multi-compartment agarose gel rotation phantom and within in vivo calf muscle. An MR-compatible ergometer (Ergospect Trispect) was employed to enable in-scanner plantar flexion exercise. In a HIPAA-compliant study with written informed consent, post-exercise recovery of DTI metrics was quantified in eight volunteers. Exercise response of DTI metrics was compared with that of T2-weighted imaging and characterized by a gamma variate model.

Results

Phantom results show quantification of diffusivities in each compartment over its full dynamic rotation. In vivo calf imaging results indicate larger radial than axial exercise response and recovery in the plantar flexion-challenged gastrocnemius medialis (fractional response: nT2w = 0.385 ± 0.244, nMD = 0.163 ± 0.130, nλ1 = 0.110 ± 0.093, nλrad = 0.303 ± 0.185). Diffusion and T2-weighted response magnitudes were correlated (e.g., r = 0.792, p = 0.019 for nMD vs. nT2w).

Conclusion

We have demonstrated the feasibility of MEDITI for capturing spatially resolved diffusion tensor data in dynamic systems including post-exercise skeletal muscle recovery following in-scanner plantar flexion.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the NIH (R21EB009435, S10OD021702). This work has utilized computing resources at the High Performance Computing Facility of the Center for Health Informatics and Bioinformatics at NYU Langone Health; see http://www.med.nyu.edu/chibi/services/hpcf/acknowledgement-statement.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, New York University Langone Health, New York, NY, USA

    E. E. Sigmund, S. H. Baete, K. Patel, D. Wang, D. Stoffel, R. Otazo, P. Parasoglou & J. Bencardino

  2. Center for Advanced Imaging and Innovation (CAI2R), New York University Langone Health, New York, NY, USA

    E. E. Sigmund, S. H. Baete, D. Stoffel, R. Otazo & P. Parasoglou

  3. NYU Tandon School of Engineering, Brooklyn, NY, USA

    K. Patel & D. Wang

  4. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    R. Otazo

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  1. E. E. Sigmund
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Contributions

Protocol/project development: SEE, BSH, SD, BJ. Data collection or management: SEE, BSH, PK, WD, PP. Data analysis: SEE, BSH, PK, WD, OR.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. E. Sigmund.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Sigmund, E.E., Baete, S.H., Patel, K. et al. Spatially resolved kinetics of skeletal muscle exercise response and recovery with multiple echo diffusion tensor imaging (MEDITI): a feasibility study. Magn Reson Mater Phy 31, 599–608 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-018-0686-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-018-0686-8

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