Microscopic diffusivity compartmentation in formalin-fixed prostate tissue

MR microimaging at 16.4 T with 40-µm isotropic voxels was used to investigate compartmentation of water diffusion in formalin-fixed prostate tissue. Ten tissue samples (-28 mm3 each) from five organs were imaged. The mean diffusivity of epithelial, stromal, and ductal/acinar compartments was estimated by two methods: (1) manual region of interest selection and (2) Gaussian fitting of voxel diffusivity histograms. For the region of interest-method, the means of the tissue sample compartment diffusivities were significantly different (P < 0.001): 0.54 ± 0.05 µm2/ms for epithelium-containing voxels, 0.91 ± 0.17 µm2/ms for stroma, and 2.20 ± 0.04 µm2/ms for saline-filled ducts. The means from the histogram method were also significantly different (P < 0.001): 0.45 ± 0.08 µm2/ms for epithelium-containing voxels, 0.83 ± 0.16 µm2/ms for stroma, 2.21 ± 0.02 µm2/ms for duct. Estimated partial volumes of epithelial, stromal, and ductal/acinar compartments in a “tissue only” subvolume of each sample were significantly different (P < 0.02) between cancer and normal tissue for all three compartments. It is concluded that the negative correlation between apparent diffusion coefficient and cancer Gleason grade observed in vivo results from an increase of partial volume of epithelial tissue and concomitant decrease of stromal tissue and ductal space.