Can Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging Provide Better Ischemic Lesion Delineation?

Edward S. Hui¹, Fang Du¹, Qiang Shen¹, Shiliang Huang¹, Timothy Q. Duong¹

Conventionally, lesion core is defined as the region with reduced apparent diffusion coefficient. It has been reported that diffusion-weighted images (DWI) acquired with high b-value allowed better delineation of ischemic lesion. In other words, advanced diffusion techniques that make use of DWI with high b-value might potentially provides more reliable ischemic tissue staging. One of which is diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) model which measures non-Gaussianity of water diffusion. DKI was thus performed in an established transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) rat model during the hyperacute, acute and subacute phases. Comparisons were made with perfusion, conventional diffusion techniques.