Inversion Recovery Quasi-Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Motivation: To provide a clinically feasible Quasi-Diffusion Tensor Imaging (QDTI) acquisition with free water suppression. Goal(s): To assess the effect of inversion recovery (IR) on QDTI measures in grey and white matter and determine measurement accuracy in clinically feasible data acquisitions. Approach: dMRI were acquired (8 b-values) with and without IR. QDTI measures were computed in brain tissue. Measurement bias was quantified for 4 and 3 b-value data subsets. Results: IR reduced free water effects by lowering grey matter diffusion coefficients in grey matter and raising tissue anisotropy. QDTI $$$\alpha$$$ was robust to effects of IR. Clinically feasible acquisitions provide accurate IR-QDTI measures. Impact: Our results suggest that IR-QDTI is a straightforward and robust method applicable to clinical studies for accurately characterising non-Gaussian diffusion in diseases of cortical grey matter, and white matter lesions/tumour where substantial numbers of voxels have high free water content.