Conventional pulsed gradient spin echo, with its longer diffusion time, is poorly sensitive to diffusion at short length scales. Oscillating gradient spin echo enables assessment of diffusion at sub-cellular length scales, providing information about cell size and the intracellular environment. We observed that time dependence of diffusion in the myocardium was more pronounced along the 2nd and 3rd eigenvectors compared to the 1st eigenvector of the diffusion tensor. This is consistent with known anisotropic cardiomyocyte geometry. Furthermore, the measured diffusion at high frequencies still exhibited strong anisotropy that may reflect anisotropy of intracellular organelles such as actin-myosin filaments.
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