Toshikazu Imae1, Hiroyuki Shinohara2, Masaki Sekino, Hiroyuki Ohsaki, Shoogo Ueno3, Kazuo Mima1, Kuni Ohtomo1
1University of Tokyo Hospital, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japan; 2Tokyo Metropolitan University; 3Kyushu University
Diffusion-weighted imaging reflects the influence of the intra- and extracellular diffusion coefficient of water and membrane permeability. The purpose of this study is to non-invasively estimate membrane permeability and intracellular diffusion coefficient of normal human gray matter. Membrane permeability and intracellular diffusion coefficient were estimated in three normal volunteers through a comparison of theoretically predicted signals and experiment results using a 1.5 T MRI system. The estimated membrane permeability and intracellular diffusion coefficient were 769 μm and (1.00.0) mm2/s, respectively. The estimated value of membrane permeability was the criterion value for the diagnosis of brain diseases in gray matter.