DIFFUSION MEASUREMENT IN PHANTOMS AND TISSUES USING SLIM LOCALIZATION

A new approach to efficient localized diffusion measurements has been developed and evaluated on phantoms and isolated tissues. The combinat ion of a diffusion-sensitive pulse sequence with SLIM (spectral locali zation by imaging) makes efficient and accurate localized water and me tabolite diffusion measurements possible with a substantial improvemen t in spatial or time resolution compared to standard methods. Phantom experiments showed that diffusion of substances present in relatively low concentration within small compartments can be measured accurately by this method, suggesting potential applications for diffusion measu rements of metabolites in vivo, Experiments on excised rat uterine hor ns demonstrated the ability of this method to measure localized diffus ion of water within irregularly shaped regions of biological samples, Accurate diffusion measurements were achieved in the localized regions with acquisition times less than would have been required by standard diffusion imaging methods. (C) 1997 Academic Press.