DPD of diffusion-weighted MRI

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) experiments can be simulated by coupling dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) with Bloch equations. DPD gives hydrodynamics with thermal fluctuations at a well-defined temperature by introducing momentum conserving particle interaction forces and a fluctuation dissipation theorem. The Bloch equations are a set of differential equations that describe the evolution of nuclear magnetization as a function of time. Here we successfully simulate DW-MRI by using the solution of Bloch equations for each DPD particle while computing its trajectories through DPD forces. To this end, a spin echo sequence combined with different diffusion-weighting gradients was implemented and tested for the diffusion of a fluid bound by different diffusion regimes. Fluid confinement was easily incorporated, which enabled investigating different diffusion regimes and the performance of different pulse sequences. The three different sequences applied were: spin echo single-sided bipolar gradient, spin echo two-sided bipolar gradient and spin echo uni-polar gradient; and the three imaged diffusion regimes of interest were: free diffusion, localization and motional narrowing.