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Investigating the relationship between diffusion kurtosis tensor imaging (DKTI) and histology within the normal human brain.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

Maiter, Ahmed 
Riemer, Frank 
Allinson, Kieren 
Zaccagna, Fulvio 
Crispin-Ortuzar, Mireia 

Abstract

Measurements of water diffusion with MRI have been used as a biomarker of tissue microstructure and heterogeneity. In this study, diffusion kurtosis tensor imaging (DKTI) of the brain was undertaken in 10 healthy volunteers at a clinical field strength of 3 T. Diffusion and kurtosis metrics were measured in regions-of-interest on the resulting maps and compared with quantitative analysis of normal post-mortem tissue histology from separate age-matched donors. White matter regions showed low diffusion (0.60 ± 0.04 × 10-3 mm2/s) and high kurtosis (1.17 ± 0.06), consistent with a structured heterogeneous environment comprising parallel neuronal fibres. Grey matter showed intermediate diffusion (0.80 ± 0.02 × 10-3 mm2/s) and kurtosis (0.82 ± 0.05) values. An important finding is that the subcortical regions investigated (thalamus, caudate and putamen) showed similar diffusion and kurtosis properties to white matter. Histological staining of the subcortical nuclei demonstrated that the predominant grey matter was permeated by small white matter bundles, which could account for the similar kurtosis to white matter. Quantitative histological analysis demonstrated higher mean tissue kurtosis and vector standard deviation values for white matter (1.08 and 0.81) compared to the subcortical regions (0.34 and 0.59). Mean diffusion on DKTI was positively correlated with tissue kurtosis (r = 0.82, p < 0.05) and negatively correlated with vector standard deviation (r = -0.69, p < 0.05). This study demonstrates how DKTI can be used to study regional structural variations in the cerebral tissue microenvironment and could be used to probe microstructural changes within diseased tissue in the future.

Description

Keywords

Adult, Brain, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Female, Humans, Male, Young Adult

Journal Title

Sci Rep

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2045-2322
2045-2322

Volume Title

11

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
Evelyn Trust (project ref 15/37)
Multiple Sclerosis Society (35)
Cancer Research UK (C12912/A27150)
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) (3819-1819-07)
National Institute for Health and Care Research (IS-BRC-1215-20014)