Cytosolic diffusivity and microscopic anisotropy of N-acetyl aspartate in human white matter with diffusion-weighted MRS at 7 T.

ABSTRACT: Metabolite diffusion measurable in humans in vivo with diffusion-weighted spectroscopy (DW-MRS) provides a window into the intracellular morphology and state of specific cell types. Anisotropic diffusion in white matter is governed by the microscopic properties of the individual cell types and their structural units (axons, soma, dendrites). However, anisotropy is also markedly affected by the macroscopic orientational distribution over the imaging voxel, particularly in DW-MRS, where the dimensions of the volume of interest (VOI) are much larger than those typically used in diffusion-weighted imaging. One way to address the confound of macroscopic structural features is to average the measurements acquired with uniformly distributed gradient directions to mimic a situation where fibers pr

SUBMITTER: Lundell H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8244075 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature