Probing of susceptibility structures through the distant dipolar field effect

Abstract

In this paper, the utilization of the distant dipolar field (DDF) signal to extract the properties of susceptibility structures over a subvoxel length scale is investigated. Numerical simulations are performed to study a system of randomly distributed blood vessels with a susceptibility offset inside a voxel. It is shown that the DDF signal of the system as a function of the strength of the correlation gradient field manifests a peak that depends on the volume ratio, size, and susceptibility offset of the blood vessels. In particular, the location of the signal peak is found to vary as powers of these parameters. As a result, by varying the strength of the correlation gradient field, the characteristic properties of the blood vessels can be extracted from the peak position of the DDF signal. It is also found that, for a given volume ratio of the blood vessels, a smaller size of the blood vessels can be probed when the susceptibility offset is increased. Nevertheless, it is demonstrated that, owing to the broad width of the signal peak, the DDF effect generally cannot be used for the preferential selection of the signal arising from the blood vessels on the length scale determined by the correlation length.