Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging

  • Martin King
  • Nick van Bruggen
  • Albert Busza
  • Robert Turner
Chapter
Part of the Advances in Neurochemistry book series (ANCH, volume 8)

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.

Keywords

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Cerebral Blood Flow Magnetic Field Gradient Spread Depression 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1997

Authors and Affiliations

  • Martin King
    • 1
  • Nick van Bruggen
    • 2
  • Albert Busza
    • 1
  • Robert Turner
    • 1
  1. 1.RCS Unit of BiophysicsInstitute of Child HealthLondonUK
  2. 2.Department of NeuroscienceGenentech Inc.South San FranciscoUSA

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