Method for quantifying isotropic diffusion and / or anisotropic diffusion in a sample

摘要

According to an aspect of the present inventive concept there is provided a method for quantifying isotropic diffusion and/or anisotropic diffusion in a sample, the method comprising: performing diffusion weighted magnetic resonance measurements on the sample using diffusion encoding magnetic gradient pulse sequences Gi=1. . . m, wherein each magnetic gradient pulse sequence Gi is generated such that a diffusion encoding tensor bi for the magnetic gradient pulse sequence Gi has one to three non-zero eigenvalues, where bi=Formula (I), qi(t) is proportional to Formula (II) and t is an echo time. The method further comprises collecting data representing magnetic resonance echo signals resulting from the measurements on the sample, wherein at least a subset of the data represents echo signals being acquired with a set of magnetic gradient pulse sequences causing anisotropic diffusion weighting, and wherein the diffusion encoding tensor for each gradient pulse sequence of the set of magnetic gradient pulse sequences has three non-zero eigenvalues, at least one of the three eigenvalues being different from the other two eigenvalues. The method further comprises calculating a degree of isotropic diffusion and/or a degree of anisotropic diffusion using the data.