Zusammenfassung
In the last 10-15 years, MR imaging techniques have been increasingly
applied to the study of molecular displacement (diffusion) in biologic
tissue. The ability to spatially map the diffusion of free water
protons in vivo using 1H MR imaging and the observation that the
diffusion of free water protons is reduced in acutely infarcted
brain tissue are responsible for the widespread use of these techniques
in clinical imaging. More recently, the dependency of molecular
diffusion on the orientation of white matter fiber tracts has elicited
great interest in studying the factors that influence this dependency
and in spatially mapping these fiber tracts using diffusion imaging.
In this paper, we briefly describe the tensor theory used to characterize
molecular diffusion in white matter and how the tensor elements
are measured experimentally using diffusion-sensitive MR imaging.
We then review techniques for acquiring relatively high-resolution
diffusion-sensitive MR images and computer-based algorithms that
allow the generation of white matter fiber tract maps from the tensor
data. We provide an overview of current experience and some clinical
examples that are ongoing in our center. Finally, we discuss the
possible future role of these white matter maps in the assessment
of white matter diseases, congenital brain malformations, central
nervous system neoplasms (presurgical evaluation), and brain function.
- 11756078
- brain
- brain,
- computer-assisted,
- diffusion,
- diseases,
- enhancement,
- fibers,
- humans,
- image
- imaging,
- magnetic
- myelinated,
- nerve
- neural
- pathways,
- processing,
- reference
- resonance
- three-dimensional,
- values,
Nutzer