Non-invasive Methods for Extracting Microstructural Information from Human Tissues: Implementation in a Clinical MRI Scanner

ANALIA ZWICK

Seminario; NMR seminars - Weizmann Institute; 2023

Extracting quantitative information about tissue microstructure using non-invasive methods is anexceptional challenge in understanding disease mechanisms and enabling early diagnosis ofpathologies. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a promising and widely used technique toachieve this goal, but it still provides low resolution to reveal details of the microstructure.Recently, we have developed methods to produce images with quantitative information about themicrostructure based on selective probing of spin dephasing induced by molecular diffusionrestriction in cavities of the tissue microstructure [1-3]. The feasibility of the theoretical methodhas been demonstrated so far by first-principles experiments and simulations on typical sizedistributions of white matter in the mouse brain [3]. As a next step towards practicalimplementation, we have implemented this method in clinical scanners [4]. In this work, I presentthe challenges and preliminary results of this implementation in both phantoms and humanvolunteers. These results open up a new avenue for MRI to advance in extracting quantitative,and fast microstructural information from images.[1] A. Zwick, D. Sueter, G. Kurizki, G. A. Álvarez, Phys. Rev. Applied 14, 024088, (2020).[2] M. Capiglioni, A. Zwick, P. Jiménez, G. A. Álvarez. Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 29, 2036 (2021)[3] M. Capiglioni, A. Zwick, P. Jiménez and G. A. Álvarez, Phys. Rev. Applied 15, 014045 (2021).[4] E. Saidman, A. Zwick, S. Tambalo, T. Feiweier, J. Jovicich, G. A. Álvarez. Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson.Med. (2023)