CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 1,251Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and ApplicationsAdvanced MRI Techniques and ApplicationsNMR spectroscopy and applications

MRI quantification of non-gaussian water diffusion by kurtosis analysis

Open access
Jensen, Jens H., Helpern, Joseph A.·2010·NMR in Biomedicine
DOI 10.1002/nbm.1518PMC PMC2997680
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Quantification of non-Gaussianity for water diffusion in brain by means of diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) is reviewed. Diffusional non-Gaussianity is a consequence of tissue structure that creates diffusion barriers and compartments. The degree of non-Gaussianity is conveniently quantified by the diffusional kurtosis and derivative metrics, such as the mean, axial, and radial kurtoses. DKI is a diffusion-weighted MRI technique that allows the diffusional kurtosis to be estimated with clinical scanners using standard diffusion-weighted pulse sequences and relatively modest acquisition times. DKI is an extension of the widely used diffusion tensor imaging method, but requires the use of at least 3 b-values and 15 diffusion directions. This review discusses the underlying theory of DKI as well as practical considerations related to data acquisition and post-processing. It is argued that the diffusional kurtosis is sensitive to diffusional heterogeneity and suggested that DKI may be useful for investigating ischemic stroke and neuropathologies, such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1002/nbm.1518

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • More advanced microstructural measures include inter- and intra-cellular signal fractions derived from DKI, Free Water modeling, NODDI, SMT, or AFD.

    “More advanced measures include those reflecting inter- and intra-cellular signal fractions derived from Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI) (Jensen and Helpern, 2010), Free Water modeling (Pasternak et al., 2012; 2009), Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) (Zhang et al., 2012), Spherical Mean Technique (SMT) (Kaden et al., 2016), or Apparent Fiber Density (AFD) (Raffelt et al.,”

    From Quantitative mapping of the brain’s structural connectivity using diffusion MRI tractography: A review (2022) · cites this paper as Jensen and Helpern, 2010

    The Simple Models section (page unavailable) discusses intracellular and extracellular compartments and relates kurtosis to a compartment’s water fraction. It says, however, that DKI-derived diffusion and kurtosis measures do not uniquely determine the fractions: kurtosis provides only an upper bound for the fast-diffusing compartment’s fraction. The paper therefore supports DKI as an advanced measure sensitive to tissue structure, but not the claim that it yields inter- and intra-cellular signal fractions. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Non-Gaussian diffusion is typically a consequence of barriers and compartments, and higher kurtosis values imply greater diffusional heterogeneity.

    “Non-Gaussian diffusion is typically a consequence of barriers and compartments, and higher kurtosis values imply greater diffusional heterogeneity [12–14].”

    From Brain microstructure abnormalities in the 3xTg-AD mouse – A diffusion MRI and morphology correlation study (2022) · cites this paper as [14]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 62

  1. [3]Jensen JH Helpern JA Quantifying non-Gaussian water diffusion by means of pulsed-field-gradient MRI Proceedings of the 11th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Toronto, Canada 2003 2154
  2. [4]Jensen JH Helpern JA Ramani A Lu H Kaczynski K Diffusional kurtosis imaging: the quantification of non-Gaussian water diffusion by means of magnetic resonance imaging Magn Reson Med 2005 53 1432 1440 15906300
  3. [5]Lu H Jensen JH Ramani A Helpern JA Three-dimensional characterization of non-Gaussian water diffusion in humans using diffusion kurtosis imaging NMR Biomed 2006 19 236 247 16521095
  4. [6]Basser PJ Mattiello J Le Bihan D Estimation of the effective self-diffusion tensor from the NMR spin echo J Magn Reson B 1994 103 247 254 8019776
  5. [7]Basser PJ Mattiello J Le Bihan D MR Diffusion tensor spectroscopy and imaging Biophys J 1994 66 259 267 8130344 PMC1275686
  6. [8]Basser PJ Inferring microstructural features and the physiological state of tissues from diffusion-weighted images NMR Biomed 1995 8 333 344 8739270
  7. [9]Basser PJ Pierpaoli C Microstructural and physiological features of tissues elucidated by quantitative-diffusion-tensor MRI J Magn Reson B 1996 111 209 219 8661285
  8. [11]Hui ES Cheung MM Qi L Wu EX Towards better MR characterization of neural tissues using directional diffusion kurtosis analysis Neuroimage 2008 42 122 134 18524628
  9. [12]Lätt J Nilsson M Wirestam R Johansson E Larsson EM Stahlberg F Brockstedt S In vivo visualization of displacement-distribution-derived parameters in q-space imaging Magn Reson Imaging 2008 26 77 87 17582719
  10. [13]Duong TQ Sehy JV Yablonskiy DA Snider BJ Ackerman JJ Neil JJ Extracellular apparent diffusion in rat brain Magn Reson Med 2001 45 801 810 11323806
  11. [14]Silva MD Omae T Helmer KG Li F Fisher M Sotak CH Separating changes in the intra- and extracellular water apparent diffusion coefficient following focal cerebral ischemia in the rat brain Magn Reson Med 2002 48 826 837 12417997
  12. [15]van Pul C Jennekens W Nicolay K Kopinga K Wijn PF Ischemia-induced ADC changes are larger than osmotically-induced ADC changes in a neonatal rat hippocampus model Magn Reson Med 2005 53 348 355 15678540
  13. [16]Maier SE Mulkern RV Biexponential analysis of diffusion-related signal decay in normal human cortical and deep gray matter Magn Reson Imaging 2008 26 897 904 18467062 PMC2782403
  14. [20]Roth Y Ocherashvilli A Daniels D Ruiz-Cabello J Maier SE Orenstein A Mardor Y Quantification of water compartmentation in cell suspensions by diffusion-weighted and T2-weighted MRI. Magn Reson Imaging 2008 26 88 102 17574364
  15. [21]Lee JH Springer CS Jr Effects of equilibrium exchange on diffusion-weighted NMR signals: the diffusigraphic “shutter-speed” Magn Reson Med 2003 49 450 458 12594747
  16. [22]Cao J Single molecule tracking of heterogeneous diffusion Phys Rev E 2001 63 041101 11308813
  17. [25]Sukstanskii AL Yablonskiy DA Ackerman JJ Effects of permeable boundaries on the diffusion-attenuated MR signal: insights from a one-dimensional model J Magn Reson 2004 170 56 66 15324758
  18. [26]Mitra PP Sen PN Schwartz LM Le Doussal P Diffusion propagator as a probe of the structure of porous media Phys Rev Lett 1992 68 3555 3558 10045734
  19. [27]Latour LL Svoboda K Mitra PP Sotak CH Time-dependent diffusion of water in a biological model system Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 1994 91 1229 1233 8108392 PMC43130
  20. [28]Novikov DS Jensen JH Helpern JA Permeability and surface area of cell membranes from the DWI signal Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Honolulu, USA 2009 451
  21. [29]Crick F Diffusion in embryogenesis Nature 1970 225 420 422 5411117
  22. [31]Callaghan PT Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Microscopy Oxford University Press Oxford 1991
  23. [32]Wedeen VJ Hagmann P Tseng WY Reese TG Weisskoff RM Mapping complex tissue architecture with diffusion spectrum magnetic resonance imaging Magn Reson Med 2005 54 1377 1386 16247738
  24. [33]Chabert S Meca CC Le Bihan D Relevance of the information about the diffusion distribution in vivo given by kurtosis in q-space imaging Proceedings of the 12th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Kytoto, Japan 2004 1238
  25. [34]Liu C Bammer R Acar B Moseley ME Characterizing non-Gaussian diffusion by using generalized diffusion tensors Magn Reson Med 2004 51 924 937 15122674
  26. [35]Mitra PP Sen PN Effects of microgeometry and surface relaxation on NMR pulsed-field-gradient experiments: Simple pore geometries Phys Rev B Condens Matter 1992 45 143 156 10000161
  27. [36]Frøhlich AF Ostergaard L Kiselev VG Effect of impermeable boundaries on diffusion-attenuated MR signal J Magn Reson 2006 179 223 33 16406628
  28. [37]Jensen JH Hu C Helpern JA Rapid Data Acquisition and post-processing for diffusional kurtosis imaging Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Honolulu, USA 2009 1403
  29. [38]Lazar M Jensen JH Xuan L Helpern JA Estimation of the orientation distribution function from diffusional kurtosis imaging Magn Reson Med 2008 60 774 781 18816827 PMC2562250
  30. [40]Kiselev VG Il’yasov KA Is the “biexponential diffusion” biexponential? Magn Reson Med 2007 57 464 469 17326171
  31. [41]Umezawa E Yoshikawa M Yamaguchi K Ueoku S Tanaka E Q-space imaging using small magnetic field gradient Magn Reson Med Sci 2006 5 179 189 17332708
  32. [42]Falangola MF Jensen JH Babb JS Hu C Castellanos FX Di Martino A Ferris SH Helpern JA Age-related non-Gaussian diffusion patterns in the prefrontal brain J Magn Reson Imaging 2008 28 1345 1350 19025941 PMC2669671
  33. [43]Hui ES Cheung MM Qi L Wu EX Advanced MR diffusion characterization of neural tissue using directional diffusion kurtosis analysis Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2008 3941 3944 19163575
  34. [44]Cheung MM Hui ES Chan KC Helpern JA Qi L Wu EX Does diffusion kurtosis imaging lead to better neural tissue characterization? A rodent brain maturation study Neuroimage 2009 45 386 392 19150655
  35. [45]Peled S Whalen S Jolesz FA Golby AJ High b-value apparent diffusion-weighted images from CURVE-ball DTI J Magn Reson Imaging 2009 30 243 248 19557743 PMC2728298
  36. [46]Minati L Aquino D Rampoldi S Papa S Grisoli M Bruzzone MG Maccagnano E Biexponential and diffusional kurtosis imaging, and generalised diffusion-tensor imaging (GDTI) with rank-4 tensors: a study in a group of healthy subjects MAGMA 2007 20 241 253 18046591
  37. [47]Minati L Rapid generation of biexponential and diffusional kurtosis maps using multi-layer perceptrons: a preliminary experience MAGMA 2008 21 299 305 18663505
  38. [48]Lätt J Nilsson M Malmborg C Rosquist H Wirestam R Ståhlberg F Topgaard D Brockstedt S Accuracy of q-space related parameters in MRI: simulations and phantom measurements IEEE Trans Med Imaging 2007 26 1437 1447 18041259
  39. [49]Yablonskiy DA Bretthorst GL Ackerman JJ Statistical model for diffusion attenuated MR signal Magn Reson Med 2003 50 664 669 14523949 PMC2140254
  40. [50]Jespersen SN Kroenke CD Østergaard L Ackerman JJ Yablonskiy DA Modeling dendrite density from magnetic resonance diffusion measurements Neuroimage 2007 34 1473 1486 17188901
  41. [51]Poot DHJ den Dekker AJ Sijbers J Pearson set of distributions as improved signal model for diffusion kurtosis imaging Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Honolulu, USA 2009 1393
  42. [52]Jian B Vemuri BC Özarslan E Carney PR Mareci TH A novel tensor distribution model for the diffusion-weighted MR signal Neuroimage 2007 37 164 176 17570683 PMC2576290
  43. [53]Bennett KM Schmainda KM Bennett RT Rowe DB Lu H Hyde JS Characterization of continuously distributed cortical water diffusion rates with a stretched-exponential model Magn Reson Med 2003 50 727 734 14523958
  44. [54]Poot DHJ den Dekker AJ Verhoye M Blockx I Van Audekerke J Van Der Linden A Sijbers J Optimizing the diffusion weighting gradients for diffusion-kurtosis imaging Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Honolulu, USA 2009 1394
  45. [55]Gallichan D Scholz J Bartsch A Behrens TE Robson MD Miller KL Addressing a systematic vibration artifact in diffusion-weighted MRI Hum Brain Mapp Published online: 14 Jul 2009 PMC6870579 19603408
  46. [57]Press WH Teukolsky SA Vetterling WT Flannery BP Numerical recipes in C: the art of scientific computing Cambridge University Press New York 1992 261 271
  47. [60]Sigmund EE Lazar M Jensen JH Helpern JA In vivo imaging of kurtosis tensor eigenvalues in the brain at 3 T Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Honolulu, USA 2009 360
  48. [61]Qin W Yu CS Zhang F Du XY Jiang H Yan YX Li KC Effects of echo time on diffusion quantification of brain white matter at 1.5 T and 3.0 T Magn Reson Med 2009 61 755 760 19191286
  49. [62]Dietrich O Heiland S Sartor K Noise correction for the exact determination of apparent diffusion coefficients at low SNR Magn Reson Med 2001 45 448 453 11241703
  50. [63]Le Bihan D Breton E Lallemand D Aubin ML Vignaud J Laval-Jeantet M Separation of diffusion and perfusion in intravoxel incoherent motion MR imaging Radiology 1988 168 497 505 3393671
  51. [64]Maier SE Bogner P Bajzik G Mamata H Mamata Y Repa I Jolesz FA Mulkern RV Normal brain and brain tumor: multicomponent apparent diffusion coefficient line scan imaging Radiology 2001 219 842 849 11376280
  52. [65]Maier SE Mamata H Mulkern RV Characterization of normal brain and brain tumor pathology by chisquares parameter maps of diffusion-weighted image data Eur J Radiol 2003 45 199 207 12595104
  53. [66]Le Bihan D Mangin JF Poupon C Clark CA Pappata S Molko N Chabriat H Diffusion tensor imaging: concepts and applications J Magn Reson Imaging 2001 13 534 546 11276097
  54. [67]Sundgren PC Dong Q Gómez-Hassan D Mukherji SK Maly P Welsh R Diffusion tensor imaging of the brain: review of clinical applications Neuroradiology 2004 46 339 350 15103435
  55. [68]Mori S Zhang J Principles of diffusion tensor imaging and its applications to basic neuroscience research Neuron 2006 51 527 539 16950152
  56. [69]Alexander AL Lee JE Lazar M Field AS Diffusion tensor imaging of the brain Neurotherapeutics 2007 4 316 329 17599699 PMC2041910
  57. [70]Hu C Jensen JH Falangola MF Helpern JA CSF partial volume effect for diffusional kurtosis imaging Proceedings of the 16th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Toronto, Canada 2008 3325
  58. [71]Lätt J van Westen D Nilsson M Wirestam R Ståhlberg F Holtås S Brockstedt S Diffusion time dependent kurtosis maps visualize ischemic lesions in stroke patients Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Honolulu, USA 2009 40
  59. [72]Helpern JA Lo C Hu C Falangola MF Rapalino O Jensen JH Diffusional kurtosis imaging in acute human stroke Proceedings of the 17th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Honolulu, USA 2009 3493
  60. [73]Lu H Jensen JH Hu C Falangola MF Ramani A Ferris S Helpern JA Alterations in cerebral microstructual integrity in normal aging and in Alzheimer’s disease: a multi-contrast diffusion MRI study Proceedings of the 14th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Seattle, USA 2006 723
  61. [74]Ramani A Jensen JH Szulc KU Ali O Hu C Lu H Brodie JD Helpern JA Assessment of abnormalities in the cerebral microstructure of schizophrenia patients: a diffusional kurtosis imaging study Proceedings of the 15th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Berlin, Germany 2007 648
  62. [75]Helpern JA Falangola MF Di Martino A Ramani A Babb JS Hu C Jensen JH Castellanos FX Alterations in brain microstructure in ADHD by diffusional kurtosis imaging Proceedings of the 15th Annual Meeting of ISMRM Berlin, Germany 2007 1580

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Jensen, J. H., & Helpern, J. A.
Affiliations
  • New York University (US)
  • Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research (US)
Corresponding author
Jensen, Jens H.
ORCID
Venue
NMR in Biomedicine
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2010-05-19
Volume
23
Issue
7
Pages
698-710
ISSN
  • 0952-3480 (ISSN-L)
  • 1099-1492
DOI
10.1002/nbm.1518
PMC
PMC2997680
OpenAlex
W1970936375
Cited by
1,251
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 62 · 2025: 80 · 2024: 80 · 2023: 83 · 2022: 98 · 2021: 118 · 2020: 109 · 2019: 102 · 2018: 79 · 2017: 94 · 2016: 93 · 2015: 77 · 2014: 68 · 2013: 51 · 2012: 29
FWCI
5.01
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor)
Locations
  • NMR in Biomedicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • School of Medicine, New York University
  • National Institute on Aging (R01AG027852)
  • National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (R01EB007656)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging › Advanced MRI Techniques and Applications
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Nuclear and High Energy Physics › NMR spectroscopy and applications
Keywords
diffusion kurtosis imaging, non-Gaussian diffusion, mean kurtosis, diffusion-weighted imaging, diffusion tensor imaging, ischemic stroke, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia
MeSH terms
Diffusion, Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Models, Theoretical, Water

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review