Lo James, Berry David B, Tang Qingbo, Cheng Xin, Toto-Brocchi Marco, Du Jiang, Ward Samuel R, Ma Yajun, Chang Eric Y
University of California, San Diego.
VA San Diego Healthcare System.
Res Sq. 2024 Sep 3:rs.3.rs-4791101. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4791101/v1.
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique that can be used to assess microstructural features of skeletal muscle that are related to tissue function. Although widely used, direct correlations between DTI derived metrics such as fractional anisotropy and spatially matched tissue microstructure assessed with histology have not been performed. This study investigated the relationship between scalar-based DTI measurements and histologically derived muscle microstructural measurements in rat rotator cuff muscles. Despite meticulous co-localization of MRI and histology data, negligible correlations were found between DTI metrics and histological measurements including muscle fiber diameter, cross-sectional area, and surface-to-volume ratio. These findings highlight the challenges in validating DTI with histology due to requirements in anatomical co-localization, necessity of high-quality histology, and consideration of diffusion measurement scales. Our findings underscore the need for further research with optimized imaging parameters to enhance our knowledge regarding the sensitivity of DTI to important features of muscle microstructure.
扩散张量成像（DTI）是一种磁共振成像（MRI）技术，可用于评估与组织功能相关的骨骼肌微观结构特征。尽管DTI被广泛应用，但DTI衍生指标（如分数各向异性）与通过组织学评估的空间匹配组织微观结构之间尚未进行直接相关性研究。本研究调查了大鼠肩袖肌中基于标量的DTI测量与组织学衍生的肌肉微观结构测量之间的关系。尽管MRI和组织学数据进行了细致的共定位，但在DTI指标与包括肌纤维直径、横截面积和表面积与体积比在内的组织学测量之间发现的相关性可忽略不计。这些发现凸显了在通过组织学验证DTI时所面临的挑战，这些挑战源于解剖学共定位的要求、高质量组织学的必要性以及对扩散测量尺度的考虑。我们的研究结果强调了需要采用优化的成像参数进行进一步研究，以增进我们对DTI对肌肉微观结构重要特征的敏感性的认识。
