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Figure 2 | Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

Figure 2

From: Probing dynamic myocardial microstructure with cardiac magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging

Figure 2

Schematic representation of architecture of fibers and sheets of normal myocardium (A) and in myocardial fiber disarray (B), and of their respective diffusion tensors. In the normal, fibers are locally parallel, and organized in local planes, sheetlets. Diffusion tensors represent an ellipsoid whose leading eigenvector (v1), the direction of maximum diffusion, is aligned with the mean axis of the myocardial fibers, and whose second eigenvector (v2) indicates the local sheet orientation. These directions are well-defined in the normal heart (A), and their distinctiveness is reduced or lost in fiber disarray. This is reflected in the lengths of the eigenvectors, which become more nearly equal in disarray (B). In maximum disorder, the diffusion tensor is a sphere, without distinguished directions. Details omitted include the facts that myocardial fibers are not isolated but branched syncytia, and that disarray is typically accompanied by increased matrix protein and non-contractile cells.

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