Alvaro Bertelsen1, Serena Counsell1, Joanna Allsop1, Amy McGuinness1, Shuzhou Jiang1, Rita Nunes1, Paul Aljabar2, Daniel Rueckert2, Mary R. Rutherford1, Joseph V. Hajnal1
1Robert Steiner MRI Unit, Imaging Sciences Department, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London, London, UK; 2Department of computing, Imperial College London, London, UK
Diffusion tensor imaging and white matter tractography of the human brain in utero remain a substantial challenge. We have developed a model based registration algorithm that operates on single shot diffusion weighted images to achieve slice to volume registration and place all data into a single self consistent anatomical coordinate frame, so that apparent diffusion coefficient and fractional anisotropy maps can be produced even when there is substantial fetal head motion. The method has been tested on four fetal datasets and multiple tracts were successfully extracted in all. The method holds promise for systematic fetal tractography studies in the future.