Motivation: To provide a non-invasive, rapid, low-cost diagnostic imaging method to quantitatively characterize microscopic tissue textures currently unresolvable by diagnostic imaging. Goal(s): Quantitative assessment of microscopic textures in the 10 to 1500 micrometer range with voxel dimensions similar to DWI. Either individual or multiple voxels providing multi-slice images in clinically relevant acquisition times. Approach: Excite a voxel and interrogate with a k-encode matching the spatial frequency being probed. Single voxel or multiple using a "read gradient" to separate multiple voxels. Results: MRH has demonstrated 39 μm resolution preclinically and 100 μm clinically in phantoms probing 6000 VOI in 20 seconds. Prostate scans confirm functionality. Impact: MRH provides a currently inaccessible quantitative measure of sentinel tissue microscopic characteristics enabling more informed diagnosis, reducing the need for excisional observation.
James et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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