Evaluation of non-Gaussian diffusion in cardiac MRI.
The diffusion tensor model assumes Gaussian diffusion and is widely applied in cardiac diffusion MRI. However, diffusion in biological tissue deviates from a Gaussian profile as a result of hindrance and restriction from cell and tissue microstructure, and may be quantified better by non-Gaussian modeling. The aim of this study was to investigate non-Gaussian diffusion in healthy and hypertrophic hearts.



Thirteen rat hearts (five healthy, four sham, four hypertrophic) were imaged ex vivo. Diffusion-weighted images were acquired at b-values up to 10,000 s/mm2. Models of diffusion were fit to the data and ranked based on the Akaike information criterion.



The diffusion tensor was ranked best at b-values up to 2000 s/mm2but reflected the signal poorly in the high b-value regime, in which the best model was a non-Gaussian "beta distribution" model. Although there was considerable overlap in apparent diffusivities between the healthy, sham, and hypertrophic hearts, diffusion kurtosis and skewness in the hypertrophic hearts were more than 20% higher in the sheetlet and sheetlet-normal directions.



Non-Gaussian diffusion models have a higher sensitivity for the detection of hypertrophy compared with the Gaussian model. In particular, diffusion kurtosis may serve as a useful biomarker for characterization of disease and remodeling in the heart. Magn Reson Med 78:1174-1186, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Darryl
D
McClymont
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Irvin
I
Teh
Department of Bioengineering, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
Eric
E
Carruth
Department of Bioengineering, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.|Department of Medicine, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
Jeffrey
J
Omens
Department of Bioengineering, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
Andrew
A
McCulloch
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Hannah J
HJ
Whittington
National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom.|Institute for Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine, University Heart Centre Freiburg, Bad Krozingen, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
Peter
P
Kohl
Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Vicente
V
Grau
Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Jürgen E
JE
Schneider
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D016011:Normal Distribution; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
cardiac MRI; diffusion tensor imaging; hypertrophy; kurtosis; non-Gaussian; tissue characterization
J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2012 Dec 24;14:86
23259835
NMR Biomed. 2012 Nov;25(11):1295-304
22461260
Radiology. 1990 Aug;176(2):439-45
2367658
Prog Biophys Mol Biol. 2012 Oct-Nov;110(2-3):319-30
23043978
Neuroimage. 2009 Apr 1;45(2):386-92
19150655
Magn Reson Med. 2003 Oct;50(4):727-34
14523958
Ann Thorac Surg. 2004 Jun;77(6):2004-10; discussion 2011
15172254
Magn Reson Imaging. 2008 Jan;26(1):77-87
17582719
NMR Biomed. 2010 Aug;23(7):661-81
20886562
Magn Reson Med. 2011 Apr;65(4):1043-52
21413068
Magn Reson Med. 2015 Mar;73(3):995-1004
24659571
Magn Reson Med. 2005 Jun;53(6):1432-40
15906300
Magn Reson Med. 2016 Jul;76(1):248-58
26302363
Magn Reson Imaging. 2013 Jul;31(6):840-6
23602730
Magn Reson Med. 1996 Dec;36(6):847-57
8946350
Magn Reson Med. 2016 Oct;76(4):1252-62
26511215
Magn Reson Imaging. 2013 Jul;31(6):847-56
23602723
J Cardiovasc Magn Reson. 2015 Dec 02;17:107
26631061
Circulation. 2004 Apr 6;109(13):1580-9
15066961
NMR Biomed. 2010 Aug;23(7):698-710
20632416
Magn Reson Med. 2008 Mar;59(3):447-55
18224695
Magn Reson Med. 2016 Sep;76(3):862-72
26445426
Magn Reson Med. 2009 Jul;62(1):26-34
19353660
Magn Reson Med. 2013 Aug;70(2):454-65
23001828
Neuroimage. 2015 Nov 15;122:373-84
26241680
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2001 Sep;281(3):H1280-5
11514298
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2003 Sep;285(3):H946-54
12763752
Magn Reson Med. 2002 Aug;48(2):331-40
12210942
Magn Reson Med. 2001 Apr;45(4):580-7
11283985
Magn Reson Med. 1999 Aug;42(2):393-403
10440965
Neuroimage. 2012 Feb 1;59(3):2241-54
22001791
Magn Reson Med. 2006 Oct;56(4):927-31
16941621
Magn Reson Med. 2001 Jun;45(6):1039-45
11378882
Sci Rep. 2016 Jul 28;6:30573
27466029
Magn Reson Med. 2003 Oct;50(4):664-9
14523949
J Magn Reson Imaging. 2011 Nov;34(5):1080-91
21932362
Magn Reson Imaging. 2006 Jan;24(1):61-8
16410179
PLoS One. 2014 Sep 05;9(9):e107159
25191900
J Magn Reson. 2012 Sep;222:105-11
22864268
Radiology. 2010 Mar;254(3):876-81
20089718
Biophys J. 1994 Jan;66(1):259-67
8130344