Summary
Contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is generated by exploiting a variety of physicochemical properties. Conventional clinical MRI techniques are largely based upon disease-induced changes in water relaxation, but these have been complemented by a number of other approaches, including a sensitization to the diffusion of water. It has been shown that diffusion-weighted (DW) imaging can be used to advantage in the diagnosis of a number of pathologies that are undetectable using standard imaging protocols. Moreover, DW imaging can provide information concerning the nature of the pathology, in addition to the spatial information that is obtained from the image per se. This chapter starts with a brief description of the diffusion phenomenon and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods for measuring diffusion coefficients. This is followed by sections devoted to some theoretical and instrumental aspects of DW imaging. The remainder of the chapter is concerned with some biomedical applications of DW imaging, with an emphasis on cerebral pathophysiology. No attempt has been made to provide an exhaustive review of the literature on DW imaging. On the contrary, we have identified a few studies that specifically serve to illustrate its potential application to neuroscience.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Ahn, C. D., Lee, S. Y., Nalcioglu, O., and Cho, Z. H., 1987, The effects of random directional distributed flow in nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, Med. Phys. 14:43–48.
Allen, K., Busza, A. L., Crockard, H. A., Frackowiak, R. S., Gadian, D. G., Proctor, E., Ross Russell, R., and Williams, S. R., 1988, Acute cerebral ischaemia: Concurrent changes in cerebral blood flow, energy metabolites, pH, and lactate measured with hydrogen clearance and 31P and 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: III Changes following ischaemia, J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 8:816–821.
Astrup, J., Siesjö, B. K., and Symon. L., 1981, Thresholds in cerebral ischemia—the ischemic penumbra, Stroke 12:723–725.
Back, T., Kohno, K., Radermacher, B., Fischer, M., and Hossmann, K.-A., 1993, Characterisation of tissue oxygenation and spreading depression-like DC shifts in the penumbra of focal ischemic rats, J. Cereb. Blood Floss’ Metab. 13(Suppl. I):583.
Gasser, P. J., Mattiello, J., and Le Bihan, D., 1994a, Estimation of the effective self-diffusion tensor from the NMR spin echo, J. Mage. Restas. B 103:247–254.
Gasser, P. J., Mattiello, J., and Le Bihan, D., 1994b, MR diffusion tensor spectroscopy and imaging, Biophys. J. 66:259–267.
Benveniste, H., Hedlund, L. W., and Johnson, G. A., 1992, Mechanism of detection of acute cerebral ischemia in rats by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance microscopy, Stroke 23:746–754.
Busza, A. L., Allen, K. L., King, M. D., van Bruggen, N., Williams, S. R., and Gadian, D. G., 1992, Diffusion-weighted imaging studies of cerebral ischemia in gerbils. Potential relevance to energy failure, Stroke 23:1602–1612.
Carr, H. Y., and Purcell, E. M., 1954, Effects of diffusion on free precession in nuclear magnetic resonance experiments, Phvs. Rev. 94:630–638.
Chenever, T. L., Brunberg, J. A., and Pipe, J. G., 1990, Anisotropic diffusion in human white matter: Demonstration with MR techniques in vivo, Radiology 177:401–405.
Cory, D. G., and Garroway, A. N., 1990, Measurement of translational displacement probabilities by NMR: An indicator of compartmentation, Magn. Reson. Med. 14:435–444.
Dardzinski, B. J., Sotak, C. H., Fisher, M., Hasegawa, Y., Li, L., and Minematsu, K., 1993, Apparent diffusion coefficient mapping of experimental focal cerebral ischemia using diffusion-weighted echo-planar imaging, Magn. Reson. Med. 30:318–325.
Decanniere, C., Eleff, S., Sugimoto, H., Davis, D., and van Zijl, P., 1994, Rapid changes in lactate, purine nucleotides, and average water diffusion constant during global ischemia in cat brain, in “Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Magnetic Resonance, San Francisco.” 235. (Abstract).
Doran, M., Hajnal, J. V., van Bruggen, N., king, M. D., Young, I. R., and Bydder, G. M., 1990, Normal and abnormal white matter tracts shown by MR imaging using directional diffusion weighted sequences, J. Comput. Assist. Tomogr. 14:865–873.
Gardner-Medwin, A. R., van Bruggen, N., Williams, S. R., and Ahier, R. G., 1994, Magnetic resonance imaging of propagating waves of spreading depression in the anaesthetised rat, J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 14:7–11.
Gibson, J. P., Yarrington, J. T., Loudy, D. E., Gerbig, C. G., Hurst, G. H., and Newberne, J. W., 1990, Chronic toxicity studies with vigabatrin, a GABA-transaminase inhibitor, Toxicol. Pathol.18:225–238.
Hahn, E. L., 1953, Free nuclear induction, Phys. Today 6:4–9.
Hajnal, J. V., Doran, M., and Bydder, G. M., 1992, Clinical diffusion imaging, in “Magnetic Resonance Imaging” (D. D. Stark and W. G. Bradley, eds.), pp. 1081–1090, Mosby Year Book, St. Louis.
Hansen, A. J., 1985, Effect of anoxia on ion distribution in the brain. Physiol. Rev. 65:101–148.
Hansen, A. J., and Lauritzen, M., 1984, The role of spreading depression in acute brain disorders, An. Acad. Bras. Cienc. 56:447–479.
Hansen, A. J., and Olsen, C. E., 1980, Brain extracellular space during spreading depression and ischemia, Acta Physiol. Stand. 108:355–365.
Hasegawa, Y., Fisher, M., Latour, L. L., Dardzinski, B. J., and Sotrk, C. H., 1994, MRI diffusion mapping of reversible and irreversible ischemic injury in focal brain ischemia, Neurology 44:1484–1490.
Helpern, J. A., Dereski, M. O., knight, R. A., Ordidge, R. J., Chopp, M., and Qing, Z. X., 1993, Histopathological correlations of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging parameters in experimental cerebral ischemia, Magn. Reson. Imaging 11:241–246.
Henkelman, R. M., 1990, Does IVIM measure classical perfusion? Magn. Reson. Med. 16:470–475.
Horsfield, M. A., Barker, G. J., and McDonald, W. I., 1994, Self-diffusion in CNS tissue by volume-selective proton NMR, Magn. Reson. Med. 31:637–644.
Hossmann, K.-A., 1971, Cortical steady potential, impedance and excitability changes during and after total ischemia of cat brain, Exp. Neurol. 32:163–175.
Hossmann, K.-A., Fischer, M., Bockhorst, K., and Hoehn-Berlage, M., 1994, NMR imaging of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) for the evaluation of metabolic suppression and recovery after prolonged cerebral ischemia, J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 14:723–731.
Karlicek, R. F., and Lowe, I. J., 1980, A modified pulsed gradient technique for measuring diffusion in the presence of large background gradients, J. Magn. Reson. 37:75–91.
King, M. D., van Bruggen, N., Busza, A. L., Houseman, J., Williams, S. R., and Gadian, D. G., 1992, Perfusion and diffusion MR imaging, Magn. Re,son. Med. 24:288–301.
King, M. D., Houseman, J., Roussel, S. A., van Bruggen, N., Williams, S. R., and Gadian. D. G., 1994, g-Space imaging of the brain, Magn. Reson. Med. 32:707–713.
Kohno, K., Hoehn-Berlage, M., Mies, G., Back, T., and Hossmann. K.-A.. 1995. Relationship between diffusion-weighted MR images, cerebral blood flow, and energy state in experimental brain infarction, Magn. Reson. Imaging 13:73–80.
Latour, L. L., Li, L., and Sotak, C. H., 1993, Improved PFG stimulated-echo method for the measurement of diffusion in inhomogeneous fields, J. Magn. Reson. B 101:72–77.
Latour, L. L., Hasegawa, Y., Formato, J. E., Fisher, M., and Sotak, C. H., 1994, Spreading waves of decreased diffusion coefficient after cortical stimulation in the rat brain, Magn. Reson. Med. 32:189–198.
Leao, A. A. P., 1944a, Spreading depression of activity in the cerebral cortex. J. Neuroph’siol. 7:359–390.
Leao, A. A. P., 1944b, Pial circulation and spreading depression of activity in the cerebral cortex, J. Neurophvsiol. 7:391–396.
Le Bihan, D., 1988, Intravoxel incoherent motion imaging using steady-state free precession. Magn. Re.son. Med. 7:346–351.
Le Bihan, D., Breton, E., Lallemand, D., Grenier, P., Cabanis, E., and Laval-Jeantet, M., 1986, MR imaging of intravoxel incoherent motions: Application to diffusion and perfusion in neurologic disorders, Radiology 161:401–407.
Le Bihan, D., Breton, E., Lallemand, D., Aubin, M.-L., Vignaud, J., and Laval-Jeantet, M., 1988, Separation of diffusion and perfusion in intravoxel incoherent motion MR imaging. Radiology 168:497–505.
Le Bihan, D., Turner, R., and MacFall, J. R., 1989, Effects of intravoxel incoherent motions (IVIM) in steady-state free precession (SSFP) imaging: Application to molecular diffusion imaging, Magn. Reson. Med. 10:324–337.
Lian, J., Williams, D. S., and Lowe, I. J., 1994, Magnetic resonance imaging of diffusion in the presence of background gradients and imaging of background gradients, J. Magn. Re.son. A 106:65–74.
Lo, E. H., Matsumoto, K., Pierce, A. R., Garrido, L., and Luttinger, D., 1994, Pharmacologie reversal of acute changes in diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in focal cerebral ischemia. J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 14:597–603.
Mansfield, P., and Chapman, B., 1986, Active magnetic screening of gradient coils in NMR imaging, J. Magn. Reson. 66:573–576.
McCall, D. W., Douglass, D. C., and Anderson, E. W., 1963, Self-diffusion studies by means of nuclear magnetic resonance spin-echo techniques, Ber. Bunsenges Phys. Cheat. 67:336–340.
Memezawa, H., Smith, M. L., and Siesjö, B. K., 1992, Penumbral tissues salvaged by reperfusion following middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats, Stroke 23:552–559.
Merboldt, K.-D., Hänicke, W., and Frahm, J., 1985, Self-diffusion NMR imaging using stimulated echoes, J. Magn. Reson. 64:479–486.
Merboldt, K.-D., Bruhn, H., Frahm, J., Gyngell, M. L., Hänicke, W., and Deimling, M., 1989, MRI of “diffusion” in the human brain: New results using a modified CE-FAST sequence, Magn. Reson. Med. 9:423–429.
Merboldt, K.-D., Hdrstermann, D., Hänicke, W., Bruhn, H., and Frahm. J., 1993. Molecular self-diffusion of intracellular metabolites in rat-brain in vivo investigated by localized proton NMR diffusion spectroscopy, Magn. Reson. Med. 29:125–129.
Minematsu, K., Li, L. M., Sotak, C. H., Davis, M. A., and Fisher, M., 1992, Reversible focal ischemic injury demonstrated by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in rats, Stroke 23:1304–1311.
Mintorovitch, J., Moseley, M. E., Chileuitt, L., Shimizu, H., Cohen, Y., and Weinstein, P. R., 1991, Comparison of diffusion-and T2-weighted MRI for the early detection of cerebral ischemia and reperfusion in rats, Magn. Reson. Med. 18:39–50.
Moseley, M. E., Cohen, Y., Kucharczyk, J., Mintorovitch, J., Asgari, H. S., Wendland, M. F., Tsuruda, J., and Norman, D., 1990a, Diffusion-weighted MR imaging of anisotropie water diffusion in cat central nervous system, Radiology 176:439–445.
Moseley, M. E., Cohen, Y., Mintorovitch, J., Chileuitt, L., Shimizu, H., Kucharczyk, J., Wendland, M. F., and Weinstein, P. R., 1990b, Early detection of regional cerebral ischemia in cats: Comparison of diffusion-and T2-weighted MRI and spectroscopy, Magn. Reson. Med. 14:330–346.
Murday, J. S., and Cotts, R. M., 1968, Self-diffusion coefficient of liquid lithium, J. Chem. Phys. 48:4938–4945.
Neeman, M., Freyer, J. P., and Sillerud, L. 0., 1990, Pulsed-gradient spin-echo diffusion studies in NMR imaging. Effects of the imaging gradients on the determination of diffusion coefficients, J. Magn. Reson. 90:303–312.
Neuman, C. H., 1974, Spin echo of spins diffusing in bounded medium, J. Chem. Phvs. 60:4508–4511.
Niendorf, T., Norris, D. G., and Leibfritz, D., 1994, Detection of apparent restricted diffusion in healthy rat brain at short diffusion times, Magn. Reson. Med. 32:672–677.
Obrenovitch, T. P., Garofalo, O., Harris, R. J., Bordi, L., Ono, M., Momma, F., Bachelard, H. S., and Symon, L., 1988, Brain tissue concentrations of ATP, phosphocreatine, lactate, and tissue pH in relation to reduced cerebral blood flow following experimental acute middle cerebral artery occlusion, J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab. 8:866–874.
Pekar, J., Moonen, C. T. W., and van Zijl, P. C. M., 1992, On the precision of diffusion/perfusion imaging by gradient sensitization, Magn. Reson. Med. 23:122–129.
Pierpaoli, C., Linfante, I., Mattiello, J., Di Chiro, G., Le Bihan, D., and Gasser, P. J., 1994, Diffusion tensor imaging of brain white matter anisotropy, in “Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Magnetic Resonance, San Francisco,” p. 1038 (Abstract).
Posse, S., Cuenod, C. A., and Le Bihan, D., 1993, Human brain: Proton diffusion MR spectroscopy, Radiology 188:719–725.
Prasad, P. V., and Nalcioglu, O., 1991, A modified pulse sequence for in vivo diffusion imaging with reduced motion artifacts, Magn. Reson. Med. 18:116–131.
Preece, N. E., Butler, W. H., Cannon, D. J., Houseman, J., Weller, R. O., and Williams, S. R., 1994, The development of vigabatrin-induced lesions in the rat brain studied by quantitative T2 measurements and diffusion-weighted imaging, in Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Magnetic Resonance, San Francisco,“ p. 1378 (Abstract).
Rutherford, M. A., Cowan, F. M., Manzur, A. Y., Dubowitz, L. M. S., Pennock, J. M., Hajnal, J. V., Young, I. R., and Bydder, G. M., 1991, MR imaging of anisotropically restricted diffusion in the brain of neonates and infants, J. Comput. Assist. Tomogr 15:188–198.
Sakuma, H., Nomura, Y., Takeda, K., Tagami, T., Nakagawa, T., Tamagawa, Y., Ishii, Y., and Tsukamoto, T., 1991, Adult and neonatal human brain: Diffusional anisotropy and myelination with diffusion-weighted MR imaging, Radiology 180:229–233.
Siesjö, B. K., 1978, “Brain Energy Metabolism,” Wiley, Chichester.
Staub, E, Mackert, B., Kempski, O., Peters, J., and Baethmann, A., 1993, Swelling and death of neuronal cells by lactic acid, J. Neural. Sci. 119:79–84.
Stehling, M. K., Turner, R., and Mansfield, P., 1991, Echo-planar imaging: Magnetic resonance imaging in a fraction of a second, Science 254:43–50.
Stejskal, E. O., and Tanner, J. E., 1965, Spin diffusion measurements: Spin echoes in the presence of a time-dependent field gradient, J. Chem. Phvs. 42:288–292.
Tanner, J. E., 1970, Use of the stimulated echo in NMR diffusion studies, J. Chern. Phvs. 52:2523–2526.
Tanner, J. E., and Stejskal, E. O., 1968, Restricted self-diffusion of protons in colloidal systems by the pulsed-gradient, spin-echo method, J. Chem. Phys. 49:1768–1777.
Taylor, D. G., and Bushell, M. C., 1985, The spatial mapping of translational diffusion coefficients by the NMR imaging technique, Phss. Med. Biol. 30:345–349.
Turner, R., and Rowley, R. M., 1986, Passive screening of switched magnetic field gradients, J. Phvs. E: Sci. lnstrurn. 19:876–879.
Turner, R., and Keller, P. J., 1991, Angiography and perfusion measurements by NMR. Prog. NMR Spectrosc. 23:93–133.
Turner, R., Le Bihan, D., Maier, J., Vavrek, R., Hedges, L. K., and Pekar. J., 1990a, Echo-planar imaging of intravoxel incoherent motion, Radiology 177:407–414.
Turner, R., von Kienlin, M., Moonen, C. T. W., and van Zijl, P. C. M., 1990b, Single-shot localized echo-planar imaging (STEAM-EPI) at 4.7 Tesla, Magn. Reson. Med. 14:401–408.
van Bruggen, N., Roberts, T. P. L., and Cremer, J. E., 1994, The application of magnetic resonance imaging to the study of experimental cerebral ischaemia, Cerebrorasc. Brain Metab. Rev. 6:180–210.
van Gelderen, P., de Vleeschouwer, M. H. M., Despres, D., Pekar, J., van Zijl, P. C. M., and Moonen, C. T. W., 1994, Water diffusion and acute stroke, Magn. Re.son. Med. 31:154–163.
van Zijl, P. C. M., Moonen, C. T. W., Faustino, P., Pekar, J., Kaplan, O.. and Cohen, J. S., 1991, Complete separation of intracellular and extracellular information in NMR spectra of perfused cells by diffusion-weighted spectroscopy, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88:3228–3232.
Verheul, H. B., Balazs, R., Berkelbach van der Sprenkel, J. W., Tulleken, C. A. F., Nicolay, K., and van Lookeren Campagne, M.. 1993, Temporal evolution of NMDA induced excitoxicity in the neonatal rat brain measured with ‘H nuclear magnetic resonance imaging, Brain Res. 618:203–212.
Verheul, H. B., Balazs, R., Berkelbach van der Sprenkel, J. W., Tulleken, C. A. F., Nicolay, K., Tamminga, K. S., and van Lookeren Campagne, M., 1994, Comparison of diffusion-weighted MRl with changes in cell volume in a rat model of brain injury, NMR Biotned. 7:96–100.
Williams, W. D., Seymour, E. F. W., and Cotts, R. M., 1978, A pulsed-gradient multiple-spin-echo NMR technique for measuring diffusion in the presence of background magnetic field gradients, J. Magn. Reson. 31:271–282.
Wu, E. X., and Buxton, R. B., 1990, Effect of diffusion on the steady-state magnetization with pulsed field gradients, J. Magn. Re,son. 90:243–253.
Zhong, J., Petroff, A. C., Prichard, J. W., and Gore, J. C., 1993, Changes in water diffusion and relaxation properties of rat cerebrum during status epilepticus, Magn. Reson. Med. 30:241–246.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
King, M., van Bruggen, N., Busza, A., Turner, R. (1997). Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging. In: Bachelard, H. (eds) Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy and Imaging in Neurochemistry. Advances in Neurochemistry, vol 8. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5863-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-5863-7_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-7688-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-5863-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive