IN SEARCH OF THE NATURE OF THE ANISOTROPIC DIFFUSION IN NERVOUS TISSUE - MR MICROSCOPY OF THE EXCISED RAT SPINAL CORD

摘要

Anisotropic diffusion in the excised rat spinal cord saturated with 0.9% saline was investigated using MR microimaging with b-values up to 4000 s/mm~2. Two-exponential transversal diffusion decay was found in white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM). In contrast, the longitudinal diffusion is two- and monoexponential in GM and WM respectively. Slow transversal components have similar values in WM and GM. It was concluded that observed diffusion anisotropy in the spinal cord is entirely due to presence of the slow transversal component, arising from restricted diffusion.