Mapping immune cells infiltration using restricted diffusion MRI

Detection of immune cell infiltration using diffusion MRI can assist clinical diagnosis as well as prognosis evaluation. In this study, we examined whether restricted diffusion can reveal immune cell infiltration in the inflammatory tissue. A rat model of myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury was used to examine the performance restricted diffusion in mapping the inflammatory tissue. Diffusion MRI data were acquired and analyzed using generalized q-sampling imaging method. Our animal study showed that the areas with high restricted diffusion match well with the high cell density regions. In short, selective quantification of restricted diffusion can reveal immune cell infiltration, and it may enable further clinical application in detecting inflammatory tissue.