Yoshitaka Bito1,
Yuko Kawai2, Koji Hirata1, Toshihiko Ebisu3,
Toru Shirai1, Satoshi Hirata1, Yoshihisa Soutome1,
Hisaaki Ochi1, Masahiro Umeda2, Toshihiro Higuchi4,
Chuzo Tanaka4
1Central
Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd., Kokubunji-shi, Tokyo, Japan; 2Medical
Informatics, Meiji University of Integrative Medicine, Kyoto, Japan; 3Neurosurgery,
Nantan General Hospital, Kyoto, Japan; 4Neurosurgery, Meiji
University of Integrative Medicine, Kyoto, Japan
Diffusion tensor spectroscopic imaging (DTSI), using diffusion-weighted echo-planar spectroscopic imaging with a pair of bipolar diffusion gradients (DW-EPSI with BPGs), was developed. Diffusion tensor (DT) images of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in rat brains were measured by using this DTSI technique. The measured DT images of NAA and water were compared by calculating tensor correlation coefficient and difference of fractional anisotropy. The DT of NAA and DT of water show high similarity in most brain regions but show differences in the detail, i.e., the base, corpus callosum, and cortex. These results suggest that this DTSI technique is effective in investigating microstructures of the nervous system.