AUTHOR=Melchiorre Giulia , Giustiniano Francesco , Rathore Sundeep , Pileio Giuseppe TITLE=Singlet-assisted diffusion-NMR (SAD-NMR): extending the scope of diffusion tensor imaging via singlet NMR JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemistry VOLUME=11 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemistry/articles/10.3389/fchem.2023.1224336 DOI=10.3389/fchem.2023.1224336 ISSN=2296-2646 ABSTRACT=

In this study, long-lived nuclear singlet order methods are combined with diffusion tensor imaging with the purpose of characterizing the full diffusion tensor of molecules diffusing freely in large pores of up to a millimeter in size. Such sizes are out of reach in conventional diffusion tensor imaging because of the limitations imposed by the relaxation decay constant of the longitudinal magnetization. A singlet-assisted diffusion tensor imaging methodology able to circumvent such limitations is discussed, and the new possibilities that it offers are demonstrated through simulation and experiments on plastic phantoms containing cylindrical channels of 1 mm in diameter.