title: High resolution reduced-FOV diffusion tensor imaging of the human pons with multi-shot variable density spiral at 3T.
abstract: Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) of localized anatomical regions (i.e brainstem, cervical spinal cord, and optic nerve) is challenging because of the existence of significant susceptibility differences in the surrounding tissues, their high motion sensitivity and the need for high spatial resolution to resolve the underlying complex histoarchitecture. The aim of the present methodology is to achieve high resolution DTI with motion compensating capability in localized regions of the central nervous system. We accomplish this by implementing self-navigated multi-shot variable density spiral encoding with outer volume suppression. In vivo application of the technique on the human brainstem demonstrates a clear delineation of the multiple local neural tracts. We also investigate the partial volume effect on the extracted diffusion anisotropy metrics by varying the in-plane resolution while maintaining a constant signal-to-noise ratio.
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Science and Engineering Department and the Beckman Institute, in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. karampin@uiuc.edu
authors.forename: Dimitrios C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Karampinos
authors.forename: Anh T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Van
authors.forename: William C
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Olivero
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Georgiadis
authors.forename: Bradley P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Sutton
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D009413:Nerve Fibers, Myelinated / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D011149:Pons / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity