Non-invasive high-resolution tracking of human neuronal pathways: diffusion tensor imaging at 7T with 1.2 mm isotropic voxel size

Ralf Lützkendorf; Frank Hertel; Robin Heidemann; Andreas Thiel; Michael Luchtmann; Markus Plaumann; Jörg Stadler; Sebastian Baecke; Johannes Bernarding

doi:10.1117/12.2006764

6 March 2013 Non-invasive high-resolution tracking of human neuronal pathways: diffusion tensor imaging at 7T with 1.2 mm isotropic voxel size

Ralf Lützkendorf, Frank Hertel, Robin Heidemann, Andreas Thiel, Michael Luchtmann, Markus Plaumann, Jörg Stadler, Sebastian Baecke, Johannes Bernarding

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8668, Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging; 866846 (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2006764
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2013, Lake Buena Vista (Orlando Area), Florida, United States

Abstract

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) allows characterizing and exploiting diffusion anisotropy effects, thereby providing important details about tissue microstructure. A major application in neuroimaging is the so-called fiber tracking where neuronal connections between brain regions are determined non-invasively by DTI. Combining these neural pathways within the human brain with the localization of activated brain areas provided by functional MRI offers important information about functional connectivity of brain regions. However, DTI suffers from severe signal reduction due to the diffusion-weighting. Ultra-high field (UHF) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) should therefore be advantageous to increase the intrinsic signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This in turn enables to acquire high quality data with increased resolution, which is beneficial for tracking more complex fiber structures. However, UHF MRI imposes some difficulties mainly due to the larger B1 inhomogeneity compared to 3T MRI. We therefore optimized the parameters to perform DTI at a 7 Tesla whole body MR scanner equipped with a high performance gradient system and a 32-channel head receive coil. A Stesjkal Tanner spin-echo EPI sequence was used, to acquire 110 slices with an isotropic voxel-size of 1.2 mm covering the whole brain. 60 diffusion directions were scanned which allows calculating the principal direction components of the diffusion vector in each voxel. The results prove that DTI can be performed with high quality at UHF and that it is possible to explore the SNT benefit of the higher field strength. Combining UHF fMRI data with UHF DTI results will therefore be a major step towards better neuroimaging methods.

Citation Download Citation

Ralf Lützkendorf, Frank Hertel, Robin Heidemann, Andreas Thiel, Michael Luchtmann, Markus Plaumann, Jörg Stadler, Sebastian Baecke, and Johannes Bernarding "Non-invasive high-resolution tracking of human neuronal pathways: diffusion tensor imaging at 7T with 1.2 mm isotropic voxel size", Proc. SPIE 8668, Medical Imaging 2013: Physics of Medical Imaging, 866846 (6 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2006764

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available