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Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Imaging Detects Structural Damage in Biological Tissues upon Hyperthermia¹

Biophysics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas 79409

The use of quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to investigate the extent and mechanism of hyperthermic damage in biological tissues has been studied. By using the multiple delay-multiple echo and pulsed-gradient spin echo MR imaging sequences, multiple frame MR images of freshly harvested rabbit tissues (brain, kidney, and muscle) and intact duck embryos in shells were obtained before and after heat treatment (45°C for 30 min) using a clinical 1.5-Tesla wholebody superconducting MR scanner. Based on the relaxation and diffusion models, maps of the proton spin density, relaxation times, and various self-diffusion parameters of tissue water were generated from these multiple frame MR images. Our results indicated that the values of the diffusion barrier size and fractal parameter of the tissues and the self-diffusion coefficient of tissue water increased significantly, i.e., approached that of free water, after the heat treatment. In comparison, only slight changes in the spin density and relaxation times of the tissue water were found after the identical heat treatment. We concluded that the significant changes in the self-diffusive behavior of the tissue water are due to the denaturation of macromolecules (e.g., protein and fiber) within the tissues at elevated temperatures. We further suggested that MR diffusion imaging represents a powerful tool to investigate the extent and mechanism of heat damage of biological tissues in vivo and therefore bears important potential in the clinical assessment of the therapeutic efficacy of hyperthermia in cancer therapy.

¹ Supported by USPHS Grant CA47610 and Robert A. Welch Research Foundation Grant D-1158 (K. H. C.).

² To whom requests for reprints should be addressed.

Received 5/21/92. Accepted 8/25/92.

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