III 300 MHz spectrometer equipped with Micro2.5 microimaging unit
with x, y, and z gradients, using a 10 mm RF insert. The multi-slice multi-echo (MSME)
sequence was used in the experiments. The number of echoes was 16,
and the echo time was 20 ms. Altogether eight slices were measured
from each sample with 500 μm slice thickness and a field of
view of 1 cm. The image was acquired on the grid of 300 × 300
points, and the size of individual pixel was 33 μm. The image
was averaged 16 times with the repetition time of 48 s. The axial
images were acquired for all four samples, and for the 1% consistency
sample, an additional coronal image was acquired.
After the
acquisition, the analysis was performed in MATLAB software. For each
pixel the T2 value was calculated. Then
all the pixels with T2 within the range
350–650 ms where assigned as macro-pores and selected for further
analysis. The selected pixels where grouped according to connections
with other pixels to separate shapes corresponding to single pore.
For each pore the ellipsis was fitted to determine the length, width
and angle of main axis. The analysis was possible by using MATLAB
functions “bwlabel” and “regionprops”
from Image processing toolbox. The pore diameter was defined to be
a mean of the longer and shorter axis of the ellipsis.