Effect of demyelination on diffusion tensor indices: a Monte Carlo simulation study

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of white matter is routinely used to investigate myelin loss in demyelinating diseases. In literature, radial diffusivity is often considered to correlate with demyelination, and fractional anisotropy (FA) with axonal integrity. We performed Monte Carlo DTI simulations of axons modelled as randomly distributed parallel cylinders in two different set-ups for a range of packing densities: Demyelination with constant axon packing density resembling acute lesions and demyelination with constant extracellular volume fractions modelling chronic lesions. We show that radial diffusivity increases in the first scenario and decreases in the second with FA being affected in both cases.

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