Effect of B-Value and TE on the Estimation of Intramyocellular Diffusion Properties in the Presence of Edema

Bruce M. Damon¹

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) may be able to provide information about intramyocellular muscle damage distinctly from T2, but its ability to do so may be confounded by the presence of edema in SNR, TE, and b-value dependent manners. Using simulations, it was found that varying TE does not affect the estimation of intramyocellular water diffusion properties, but that SNR, b-value, and the volume fraction of the extracellular space do. Using conventional DTI acquisition schemes, the effects of edema cannot be well controlled, and so they must be accounted for when interpreting muscle DTI data in the presence of edema.