Multi-Shelled Q-Ball Imaging Without Assuming Inversion Symmetry

Eizou Umezawa¹, Masayuki Yamada¹, Chiaki Tsunetomi¹, Hirofumi Anno¹

In diffusion MR analyses, the inversion symmetry of the water molecule diffusion is often assumed: the property of diffusion into a direction is identical to that into the opposite direction. Recently, a novel method, multi-shelled q-ball imaging (MS-QBI), has been proposed. In this study, we propose a method to detect the inversion asymmetry of diffusion with MS-QBI. We also perform the numerical simulation of detecting the asymmetry and examine the ability. MS-QBI will be able to detect the inversion asymmetry if the asymmetry is large enough. It is possible that MS-QBI can detect the inversion asymmetry in the case of the small voxel size realized by a high sensitivity coil system such as the cryoprobe.