Magnetic resonance assessment of effective confinement anisotropy with orientationally-averaged single and double diffusion encoding

TL;DR

This paper develops analytical models for magnetic resonance signals in porous and biological materials, accounting for confinement anisotropy using orientationally-averaged single and double diffusion encoding, enhancing understanding of water diffusion in micro-domains.

Contribution

It introduces new analytical expressions for powder-averaged MR signals considering confinement anisotropy modeled by Hookean forces, applicable to single and double diffusion encoding schemes.

Findings

Derived analytical formulas for powder-averaged signals.

Demonstrated sensitivity to confinement anisotropy.

Applicable to both single and double diffusion encoding.

Abstract

Porous or biological materials comprise a multitude of micro-domains containing water. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance measurements are sensitive to the anisotropy of the thermal motion of such water. This anisotropy can be due to the domain shape, as well as the (lack of) dispersion in their orientations. Averaging over measurements that span all orientations is a trick to suppress the latter, thereby untangling it from the influence of the domains' anisotropy on the signal. Here, we consider domains whose anisotropy is modeled as being the result of a Hookean (spring) force, which has the advantage of having a Gaussian diffusion propagator while still retaining the fact of finite spatial range for the diffusing particles. Analytical expressions for the powder-averaged signal under this assumption are given for so-called single and double diffusion encoding schemes, which sensitize the MR signal to the diffusive displacement of particles in, respectively, one or two consecutive time intervals.