Intravoxel incoherent motion MRI in neurological and cerebrovascular diseases

• Published in: NeuroImage clinical 2018-01, Vol.20, p.705-714
• Main Authors: Paschoal, André M., Leoni, Renata F., dos Santos, Antonio C., Paiva, Fernando F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Brain - blood supply; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - pathology; Brain Neoplasms - blood supply; Brain Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Brain Neoplasms - pathology; Cerebrovascular Disorders - diagnostic imaging; Cerebrovascular Disorders - pathology; Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Regular; Stroke - diagnostic imaging; Stroke - pathology
• ISSN: 2213-1582; 2213-1582
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2018.08.030

Intravoxel Incoherent Motion (IVIM) is a recently rediscovered noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method based on diffusion-weighted imaging. It enables the separation of the intravoxel signal into diffusion due to Brownian motion and perfusion-related contributions and provides important information on microperfusion in the tissue and therefore it is a promising tool for applications in neurological and neurovascular diseases. This review focuses on the basic principles and outputs of IVIM and details it major applications in the brain, such as stroke, tumor, and cerebral small vessel disease. A bi-exponential model that considers two different compartments, namely capillaries, and medium-sized vessels, has been frequently used for the description of the IVIM signal and may be important in those clinical applications cited before. Moreover, the combination of IVIM and arterial spin labeling MRI enables the estimation of water permeability across the blood-brain barrier (BBB), suggesting a potential imaging biomarker for disrupted-BBB diseases. [Display omitted] •IVIM is a promising tool for applications in cerebrovascular diseases.•This review describes IVIM basic principles and major applications in the brain.•IVIM can be combined with ASL to extract complementary information.•This combination may provide an estimation of water permeability in blood-brain barrier.