title: Physics, Techniques and Review of Neuroradiological Applications of Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI).
abstract: In recent years many papers about diagnostic applications of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) have been published. This is because DTI allows to evaluate in vivo and in a non-invasive way the process of diffusion of water molecules in biological tissues. However, the simplified description of the diffusion process assumed in DTI does not permit to completely map the complex underlying cellular components and structures, which hinder and restrict the diffusion of water molecules. These limitations can be partially overcome by means of diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI). The aim of this paper is the description of the theory of DKI, a new topic of growing interest in radiology. DKI is a higher order diffusion model that is a straightforward extension of the DTI model. Here, we analyze the physics underlying this method, we report our MRI acquisition protocol with the preprocessing pipeline used and the DKI parametric maps obtained on a 1.5 T scanner, and we review the most relevant clinical applications of this technique in various neurological diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. maurizio.marrale@unipa.it.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marrale
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Collura
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brai
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Section, Department of Biomedicine and Prevention, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome, Italy.|Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Boston, MA, USA.|Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Toschi
authors.affiliation: University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Midiri
authors.affiliation: Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnologies, Section of Radiological Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: La Tona
authors.affiliation: Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnologies, Section of Radiological Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lo Casto
authors.affiliation: Department of Biopathology and Medical Biotechnologies, Section of Radiological Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gagliardo
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Brain; Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI); Diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI); Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); Neuroradiology