Statistical representation of mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy brain maps of normal subjects.
OBJECTIVE
To create diffusion tensor atlases from echo planar imaging (EPI) images acquired at 3 T in 10 normal subjects.


METHODS
Data from 10 right-handed healthy adult volunteers (mean age of 31 +/- 3 years; eight males) were acquired using a 3.0-T scanner. Geometric distortion artifacts correction was accomplished by combining parallel acquisition to reduce the distortion as well as postprocessing by registration to a geometrically accurate T2-weighted fast-spin-echo image. This reduced distortions to within a voxel for most of the internal structures of the brain. The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and fractional anisotropy (FA) atlases were created by warping images using an iterative optical-flow-based local deformation algorithm that used two channels of data: ADC and FA.


RESULTS
A three-dimensional distance measure was used to evaluate the accuracy of the registration algorithm with contours defined on two structures: the corpus callosum and cerebellum. The average three-dimensional distance value for the nine subjects (with the 10th as the reference) was 0.2 mm for the corpus callosum and 1.2 mm for the cerebellum.


CONCLUSIONS
A high-resolution, diffusion MR atlas with full brain coverage was developed. Additionally, maps of the SD of the diffusion indices were also generated to provide an estimate of the variance within a normal population. Active shape and texture models were also generated for the corpus callosum as an alternate method of representing the variance in morphology and diffusion indices.
Ardekani
Siamak
S
Center for Cardiovascular Bioinformatics and Modeling, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
Sinha
Usha
U
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D016880:Anisotropy; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity