Wim Van Hecke1,2, Alexander Leemans3, Steve De Backer1, Paul M. Parizel2, Jan Sijbers1
1University Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium; 2Radiology, Antwerp University Hospital, Antwerp, Belgium; 3CUBRIC, University of Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales, UK
In this work, simulated DTI data sets with a predefined pathology (i.e. known spatial location, size, and shape of the altered diffusion properties) are constructed. The simulated DTI data sets can be used to investigate the reliability, accuracy, and precision of a voxel based or region of interest analysis. In addition, the effect of the different parameters and post processing steps that are involved in the pipeline of a voxel based analysis can be examined and even optimized, which could lead to a more reliable, standardized, and consistent post-processing of DT images for studying different pathologies.