Patrick Hiepe1, Jrgen Reichenbach2
1Medical Physics Group,
Department of Diagnostic & Interventional Radiology I, Jena University
Hospital , Jena, Germany; 2Medical Physics Group, Department of
Diagnostic & Interventional Radiology I, Jena University Hospital, Jena,
Germany
In biologic tissues, ADC is determined by the microscopic motion of water including not only molecular diffusion, but also microcirculation of blood in the capillary network, as described by the IVIM model. This theory, which predicts an additional component in the signal equation due to perfusion effects, has recently been applied to MR studies of skeletal muscles. Previous studies in human skeletal muscles were analysed by calculating separately linear signal decays within predefined different intervals of b-values. This approach is limited, however, due to the missing estimation of the perfusion fraction within the signal decay. We present an approach to determine diffusion and perfusion changes in exercised human calf muscles by employing bi-exponential fitting.