Effect of diffusion time on diffusion kurtosis in neural tissues

Abstract

As diffusion-weighted (DW) signal attenuation not only depends on diffusion gradient strength but also the time separation between the 2 diffusion gradients (Δ), it is important to examine the effect of Δ on the kurtosis of the water displacement profile which could be estimated by a recently proposed robust and efficient technique known as diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI). It quantifies the kurtosis of the water diffusion profile, by acquiring DW signal at multiple b-values by varying the diffusion gradient strength at fixed Δ. The effect of Δ on kurtosis has been studies in vivo for the first time to assess its potential in teasing biological information underlying neural microstructures.