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Review
. 2018 Feb;81(2):162-170.
doi: 10.1002/jemt.22777. Epub 2016 Oct 2.

Assessing the multiscale architecture of muscular tissue with Q-space magnetic resonance imaging: Review

Matthew P Hoffman  1 , Erik N Taylor  1 , George E Aninwene 2nd  1 , Sakthivel Sadayappan  2 , Richard J Gilbert  1
Affiliations
Review

Assessing the multiscale architecture of muscular tissue with Q-space magnetic resonance imaging: Review

Matthew P Hoffman et al. Microsc Res Tech. 2018 Feb.

Abstract

Contraction of muscular tissue requires the synchronized shortening of myofibers arrayed in complex geometrical patterns. Imaging such myofiber patterns with diffusion-weighted MRI reveals architectural ensembles that underlie force generation at the organ scale. Restricted proton diffusion is a stochastic process resulting from random translational motion that may be used to probe the directionality of myofibers in whole tissue. During diffusion-weighted MRI, magnetic field gradients are applied to determine the directional dependence of proton diffusion through the analysis of a diffusional probability distribution function (PDF). The directions of principal (maximal) diffusion within the PDF are associated with similarly aligned diffusion maxima in adjacent voxels to derive multivoxel tracts. Diffusion-weighted MRI with tractography thus constitutes a multiscale method for depicting patterns of cellular organization within biological tissues. We provide in this review, details of the method by which generalized Q-space imaging is used to interrogate multidimensional diffusion space, and thereby to infer the organization of muscular tissue. Q-space imaging derives the lowest possible angular separation of diffusion maxima by optimizing the conditions by which magnetic field gradients are applied to a given tissue. To illustrate, we present the methods and applications associated with Q-space imaging of the multiscale myoarchitecture associated with the human and rodent tongues. These representations emphasize the intricate and continuous nature of muscle fiber organization and suggest a method to depict structural "blueprints" for skeletal and cardiac muscle tissue.

Keywords: Q-space imaging; diffusion weighted MRI; myoarchitecture.

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