Skip to main content
Fig. 10 | Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

Fig. 10

From: Lipid and smooth muscle architectural pathology in the rabbit atherosclerotic vessel wall using Q-space cardiovascular magnetic resonance

Fig. 10

A schematic of GQI acquisition, processing, and results used here to distinguish and represent 3D fiber architecture. This method for vessel wall imaging relies on unique acquisition and image processing techniques to produce high angular resolution 3D images of intra-voxel fiber geometry. The colors represent differing angles of the fibers. A During acquisition, CMR is used to probe the diffusion space (Q-space) with multiple applied magnetic field gradient orientations, as represented by points on the unit sphere. B GQI, an acquisition and processing pipeline, enables the analysis of voxel-wise 3D diffusion anisotropy. The output results of GQI analyses are the PDFs of local diffusion. Representative PDFs are shown. C The anisotropic diffusion properties are linked via multiple PDF maxima and displayed as tracts, indicative of the meso-scale fiber architecture present in the vessel wall, with cellular and ECM fiber component diffusion orientation assessed with this method. Tracts are colorized with encoding according to the orientation in 3D space (inset axis)

Back to article page