Table 2.

Summary of Molecular MR Imaging Techniques in the Assessment of the Diabetic Foot.

MR Technique	Molecular Basis	Demonstrated Imaging Feature of DFI
Dynamic Contrast Enhancement (DCE)	Contrast agent alters MR signal intensity in a concentration dependent manner	Bone marrow edema Pattern of Soft tissue involvement Joint impairment Vascular involvement
Diffusion Weighted Imaging (DWI)	Takes advantage of restricted diffusion in certain anatomical features such as abscesses and compares this to free water to provide an enhanced image with excellent background suppression.	Bone marrow edema Soft tissue involvement Joint impairment Nerve damage
Dixon Sequence	Combines in-phase and out-of-phase images produced through chemical-shift with decreased sensitivity to inhomogeneities of B0 and B1, resulting in homogenous fat suppression. Cortical margins and cysts are best seen on out-of-phase image, marrow edema on water-image, muscle fatty replacement and marrow fat replacement on in-phase and fat-images.	Bone marrow edema Bone lesion identification Nerve damage
Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)	Uses the sensitivity of DWI to the anisotropic water movement within myelinated axons to generate high resolution images that can provide information regarding myelin sheath and axonal damage	Nerve damage