Compartmental anisotropy of filtered exchange imaging (FEXI) in human white matter : What is happening in FEXI?

© 2024 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine..

PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of compartmental anisotropy on filtered exchange imaging (FEXI) in white matter (WM).

THEORY AND METHODS: FEXI signals were measured using multiple combinations of diffusion filter and detection directions in five healthy volunteers. Additional filters, including a trace-weighted diffusion filter with trapezoidal gradients, a spherical b-tensor encoded diffusion filter, and a T2 filter, were tested with trace-weighted diffusion detection.

RESULTS: A large range of apparent exchange rates (AXR) and both positive and negative filter efficiencies (σ) were found depending on the mutual orientation of the filter and detection gradients relative to WM fiber orientation. The data demonstrated that the fast-diffusion compartment suppressed by diffusional filtering is not exclusively extra-cellular, but also intra-cellular. While not comprehensive, a simple two-compartment diffusion tensor model with water exchange was able to account qualitatively for the trends in positive and negative filtering efficiencies, while standard model imaging (SMI) without exchange could not. This two-compartment diffusion tensor model also demonstrated smaller AXR variances across subjects. When employing trace-weighted diffusion detection, AXR values were on the order of the R1 (=1/T1) of water at 3T for crossing fibers, while being less than R1 for parallel fibers.

CONCLUSION: Orientation-dependent AXR and σ values were observed when using multi-orientation filter and detection gradients in FEXI, indicating that WM FEXI models need to account for compartmental anisotropy. When using trace-weighted detection, AXR values were on the order of or less than R1, complicating the interpretation of FEXI results in WM in terms of biological exchange properties. These findings may contribute toward better understanding of FEXI results in WM.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2024

Erschienen:

2024

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - year:2024

Enthalten in:

Magnetic resonance in medicine - (2024) vom: 25. März

Sprache:

Englisch

Beteiligte Personen:

Shin, Hyeong-Geol [VerfasserIn]
Li, Xu [VerfasserIn]
Heo, Hye-Young [VerfasserIn]
Knutsson, Linda [VerfasserIn]
Szczepankiewicz, Filip [VerfasserIn]
Nilsson, Markus [VerfasserIn]
van Zijl, Peter C M [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

Anisotropy
Diffusion MRI
Filtered exchange imaging
Journal Article
Water exchange
White matter

Anmerkungen:

Date Revised 16.04.2024

published: Print-Electronic

Citation Status Publisher

doi:

10.1002/mrm.30086

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM370151763