Diffusion weighted imaging with circularly polarized oscillating gradients.

PURPOSE: The short diffusion time regime provides an interesting probe for tissue microstructure and can be investigated with oscillating gradient spin echo (OGSE) experiments. Several studies report new contrasts in preclinical settings and the first in vivo human experiments have recently been presented. One major hurdle in practical implementation is the low effective diffusion weighting provided at high frequency with limited gradient strength. THEORY: As a solution to the low diffusion weighting of OGSE, circularly polarized OGSE (CP-OGSE) is introduced. CP-OGSE gives a twofold increase in diffusion weighting with encoding in a plane rather than in one direction. CP-OGSE can be used for rotationally invariant acquisitions on anisotropic tissues. METHODS: Experiments with a 4.7 T preclinical scanner on a postmortem monkey brain as well as simulations were performed using conventional OGSE and CP-OGSE. RESULTS: Simulations and experiments show that CP-OGSE provides the same microstructural information as OGSE but provides more robust parameter estimates with limited gradient strength. CONCLUSIONS: CP-OGSE can be an important contribution for making OGSE imaging more effective in clinical imaging settings with limited gradient strength. Furthermore, the improved diffusion weighting can also be used to expand the investigated frequency range.