Abstract #0318

Ultrahigh-resolution, whole-brain MAP-MRI in vivo using the NexGen 7T scanner

Alexandru Vlad Avram¹, An T. Vu^2,3, Kulam Najmudeen Magdoom^1,4, Alexander Beckett⁵, David A. Feinberg⁵, and Peter J. Basser¹

¹Section of Quantitative Tissue Imaging and Sciences, The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States, ²Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States, ³Radiology, San Francisco Veteran Affairs Health Care System, San Francisco, CA, United States, ⁴Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine Inc., Bethesda, MD, United States, ⁵Brain Imaging Center, Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States

Synopsis

Keywords: Microstructure, Diffusion Acquisition, diffusion propagator, cortical layers, in vivo diffusion acquisition, mean apparent propagator MRI, diffusion anisotropy

Motivation: To assess the potential of high-resolution diffusion propagator imaging in human subjects

Goal(s): To measure diffusion propagators with submillimeter spatial resolution and whole-brain coverage in healthy volunteers by leveraging the capabilities of the NexGen 7T MRI scanner

Approach: We designed an efficient protocol to acquire in vivo data with strong diffusion sensitization and high tissue sensitivity. We estimated the 3D net displacements of water molecules diffusing in tissue using mean apparent propagator (MAP) MRI.

Results: MAP-derived microstructural parameters revealed cortical laminar patterns in multiple brain regions. Variations in cortical diffusion anisotropy revealed laminar pattern discontinuities that may correlate with boundaries between cortical areas.

Impact: Ultrahigh resolution MAP-MRI could improve the neuroradiological assessment of cortical and subcortical gray matter and the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases. It could enable direct segmentation of cortical cytoarchitectonic domains and advance our ability to map connections between cortical layers.

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