A MULTIPLE ECHO PULSE SEQUENCE FOR DIFFUSION TENSOR IMAGING AND ITS APPLICATION IN EXCISED RAT SPINAL-CORDS

A new imaging sequence for rapid determination of the apparent self-di ffusion tensor of water was developed and tested on fixed excised rat spinal cords. To reduce the time required to determine the tensor, the sequence utilized a new single-shot approach with multiple spin echoe s. An assumption of cylindrical symmetry in the sample was made, thus requiring the measurement of only four of the six unique elements of t he tenser. This assumption was found experimentally to be valid, and t he results obtained using tile new sequence were found to be quantitat ively the same as results obtained using a standard spin-echo sequence .