Intravoxel Incoherent Motion (IVIM) in Healthy Skeletal Muscle Pre- And Post-Exercise

Eric E. Sigmund¹, Steven Baete¹, Gene Y. Cho¹, Dabang Sui¹, Thompson Ukpebor¹, Kecheng Liu², Jane Kwon¹, Kellyanne McGorty¹, Jenny Bencardino¹

Skeletal muscle pathologies can have both microstructural and microvascular underpinnings to which diffusion-weighted imaging can be made sensitive through the intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) approach. We performed IVIM in healthy calf muscles at 3 T both before and after treadmill exertion, and evaluated the biomarkers of tissue diffusivity, perfusion fraction, and pseudodiffusivity in 7 different muscle compartments and three orthogonal directions. The largest and most significant changes occurred for perfusion fraction, which isotropically increased by ~50%. Results are discussed in the context of muscle physiology and the sensitivities of diffusion contrast.