We propose to validate the PICASO (Precise Inference and Characterization of Structural Organization)1 biophysical model of tissue microstructure using a full-slice histology of cat spinal cord. The PICASO model was fit to high resolution diffusion MRI (dMRI) of a cat spinal cord to estimate microstructural measures of diffusion disturbance, which is directly related to axonal packing and density. We found that the structural disturbance coefficient (SDC) in the direction orthogonal to the fiber orientation from the PICASO model was strongly correlated with the axonal density obtained from histology2, with a correlation coefficient of r=0.67. Thus, the SDC could provide very precise information about the microscopic arrangement of axons or cells in biological tissue.
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