Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) is a promising method to measure both tissue diffusion and perfusion using a single multi b-value diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) acquisition. In this work, we investigated whether IVIM is sensitive in detecting surgically-induced femoral head ischemia in a piglet model of avascular necrosis. We found that the IVIM perfusion coefficient (Df) and fraction (f) decreased in the ischemic vs. contralateral-control femoral heads. Conversely, the IVIM diffusion coefficient (Ds) increased as a result of subsequent injury to the operated femoral head. These findings suggest that IVIM may provide a non-contrast-enhanced means to assess bone ischemia and perfusion.
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