Abstract #1722

Ellegood J, McKay R, Hanstock C, Beaulieu C

Diffusion anisotropy of water in neural tissue has been examined quite extensively, but compartment specific interpretation of diffusion characteristics is rather complex given that tissue water includes contributions from exchanging intra- and extracellular water. However, intracellular space can be probed selectively by measuring the diffusion characteristics of intracellular metabolites with diffusion weighted magnetic resonance spectroscopy (DW-MRS). The purpose of this study was to measure mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy of different metabolites (N-acetyl aspartate, creatine and phosphocreatine, choline, glutamate, and taurine) in excised myelinated peripheral nerve of the frog at 18.8T.