Diffusion-Weighted MRI of Fibrous Tissue: Contribution of Fat

Hernandez, Rafael A.

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/16907 Copy

Description

Title

Diffusion-Weighted MRI of Fibrous Tissue: Contribution of Fat

Author(s)

Hernandez, Rafael A.

Issue Date

2010-08-20T18:01:28Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Georgiadis, John G.

Department of Study

Mechanical Sci & Engineering

Discipline

Mechanical Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.S.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
• Pulse Sequence
• Simulation
• Muscle
• Fat
• Water Diffusion

Abstract

The goal of this research project was to develop a model that predicts the effect of fat solution on an MRI signal by a DW-GE pulse sequence. The region of interest is a heterogeneous structure inside a 3mmx3mmx9mm voxel, consisting of loosely arranged micron-sized tubes filled with fat. By assuming that the tubes are parallel inside the domain, the region of interest was simplified into a 2D domain (3mmx3mm). The approach towards achieving the main goal of predicting the signal was to then design different random tube configurations for the region of interest. In total, there were 9 configurations made, where the random positions of the tubes were done by hand: 3 sets of 3 configurations for 30, 35, and 45 tubes. In order to simplify the simulation process, the fat and water domains were done separately, taking advantage of the fact that both are independent of each other and can be concatenated during post-processing. A parametric study was first done with the fat domain, where the circular domain was moved horizontally along the 2D region of interest with a b (ms/µm^2) range of 0.3 to 0.6 in increments of 0.1. Consequently, the water domain simulations were done for each of the configurations with the same b range values. The results indicate that the experimental values would match a configuration of 30 tubes. Also, there is indication that the fat has an arguably negligible contribution to the signal decay. However, this is probably due to how the water domain area is significantly larger to that of the fat, with a ratio of around 9 to 1 for the configurations used.

Graduation Semester

2010-08

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/16907

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2010 Rafael A. Hernandez

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