Quantitative mapping of the per-axon diffusion coefficients in brain white matter.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

This article presents a simple method for estimating the effective diffusion coefficients parallel and perpendicular to the axons unconfounded by the intravoxel fiber orientation distribution. We also call these parameters the per-axon or microscopic diffusion coefficients.

Theory and methods

Diffusion MR imaging is used to probe the underlying tissue material. The key observation is that for a fixed b-value the spherical mean of the diffusion signal over the gradient directions does not depend on the axon orientation distribution. By exploiting this invariance property, we propose a simple, fast, and robust estimator of the per-axon diffusion coefficients, which we refer to as the spherical mean technique.

Results

We demonstrate quantitative maps of the axon-

SUBMITTER: Kaden E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4975722 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature