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Abstract #0040

Diffusion Time Dependent Kurtosis Maps Visualize Ischemic Lesions in Stroke Patients

Jimmy Ltt1, Danielle van Westen1, Markus Nilsson2, Ronnie Wirestam2, Freddy Sthlberg2,3, Stig Holts1,3, Sara Brockstedt1,2

1MR Department, Center for Medical Imaging and Physiology, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden; 2Department of Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, Lund, Sweden; 3Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden


Diffusion time dependence of the diffusion weighted signal for high b-values in ischemic stroke lesions was recently reported, allowing for the extraction of more information on the tissue microstructure. Here, we express the diffusion time dependence as a change kurtosis, where kurtosis reflects the degree of deviation from free diffusion. The changes in kurtosis for different diffusion times were calculated for nine ischemic stroke patients, examined at a 3T clinical scanner. The change in kurtosis successfully visualized the lesions. Changes in kurtosis are suggested to reflect changes in cell sizes as well as in cell physiology (cellular membrane functionality).