Deep brain stimulation is a surgical procedure routinely used in the treatment of advanced stages of Parkinson disease. DBS involves implanting of stimulating electrodes inside the patient’s brain, with STN most commonly being the target brain structure. Treatment efficiency and absence of negative side effects is strongly dependent on precision of electrode placement; therefore, high requirements are imposed on preoperative patient imaging for proper identification of anatomy of interest. Histochemical studies suggest that iron (one of the major contrast contributors in QSM) is densely and heterogeneously distributed in STN. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that distribution of iron might be related to functional subdivisions in STN. Thus, DBS surgery planning might benefit from more precise calculation of susceptibility distribution, which would allow observe and characterize gradients in iron concentration in in vivo patient data potentially leading to minimization of non-motor side effects. Accordingly, we develop a high resolution QSM protocol for DBS presurgical MRI protocol.
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