3D fiber tractography with susceptibility tensor imaging.

ABSTRACT: Gradient-echo MRI has revealed anisotropic magnetic susceptibility in the brain white matter. This magnetic susceptibility anisotropy can be measured and characterized with susceptibility tensor imaging (STI). In this study, a method of fiber tractography based on STI is proposed and demonstrated in the mouse brain. STI experiments of perfusion-fixed mouse brains were conducted at 7.0T. The magnetic susceptibility tensor was calculated for each voxel with regularization and decomposed into its eigensystem. The major eigenvector is found to be aligned with the underlying fiber orientation. Following the orientation of the major eigenvector, we are able to map distinctive fiber pathways in 3D. As a comparison, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and DTI fiber tractography were also conducted on t

SUBMITTER: Liu C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3235503 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature