APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ESTIMATING WATER DIFFUSIVITY AND MICROCIRCULATION OF BLOOD USING DW-MRI DATA

摘要

Apparatuses, methods and systems for estimating water diffusivity and microcirculation of blood using DW-MRI data ("AEW") are disclosed herein. The apparatuses, methods and systems provide a computational framework for choosing and applying the most appropriate model in different regions of a heterogeneous area on a voxel-by-voxel basis. The apparatuses, methods and systems also configure an intravoxel-incoherent-motion (IVIM) model for estimating water diffusivity and microcirculation of blood in the capillary network from DW-MRI low b-value data. In one implementation, the method uses a small number of b-values (at least 3 in the b-value range of 0-300 s/mm2, increasing the upper bound of the low b-value range by one b-value in the absence of DW-MRI signal at 300 s/mm2 and is able to synthetically generate DW-MRI data corresponding at higher b-values using the derived IVIM equation. The method also accounts for estimating non-Gaussian diffusion parameter K app .