Mapping tissue microstructure across the human brain on a clinical scanner with soma and neurite density image metrics

Soma and neurite density image (SANDI) is an advanced diffusion magnetic resonance imaging biophysical signal model devised to probe in vivo microstructural information in the gray matter (GM). This model requires acquisitions that include b values that are at least six times higher than those used in clinical practice. Such high b values are required to disentangle the signal contribution of water diffusing in soma from that diffusing in neurites and extracellular space, while keeping the diffusion time as short as possible to minimize potential bias due to water exchange. These requirements have limited the use of SANDI only to preclinical or cutting‐edge human scanners. Here, we investigate the potential impact of neglecting water exchange in the SANDI model and present a 10‐min acquisition protocol that enables to characterize both GM and white matter (WM) on 3 T scanners. We implemented analytical simulations to (i) evaluate the stability of the fitting of SANDI parameters when diminishing the number of shells; (ii) estimate the bias due to potential exchange between neurites and extracellular space in such reduced acquisition scheme, comparing it with the bias due to experimental noise. Then, we demonstrated the feasibility and assessed the repeatability and reproducibility of our approach by computing microstructural metrics of SANDI with AMICO toolbox and other state‐of‐the‐art models on five healthy subjects. Finally, we applied our protocol to five multiple sclerosis patients. Results suggest that SANDI is a practical method to characterize WM and GM tissues in vivo on performant clinical scanners. We present a novel robust and clinically feasible 10‐min diffusion MRI protocol with b values up to 6000 s/mm2 for 3 T which can reliably assess gray and white matter microstructure according to the soma and neurite density image (SANDI) model. Using analytical simulations we investigated the potential impact of neglecting water exchange. Then we demonstrated the feasibility and assessed the repeatability and reproducibility of our approach in vivo.