Sensitivity study of diffusion-weighted MRI by comparing simulations to fiber phantom measurements

摘要

Experimental diffusion-weighted MRI measurements of a fiber phantom were compared to signals generated using a Monte-Carlo diffusion simulation. The diffusion simulation was combined with a generally applicable MRI simulation. We performed simulations for square packed and random packed cylinders that model the fibers. Good agreement was found between the simulated signal and the measured signal for a specific random packing type (the relative error was 0.09+-0.06). Follow-up simulations that use larger system sizes are needed to improve the accuracy. The simulation method presented here can be used to study changes in microstructural properties and to compare the efficiency of different MRI protocols in detecting these changes.