Meeting Banner
Abstract #3357

Acquisition and processing strategy for obtaining high quality, distortion free diffusion MRI of the brainstem and cervical spine

Neda Sadeghi1, Joelle E. Sarlls2, Jessica Jordan3, Flavia Facio4, Elizabeth B. Hutchinson1,5, M. Okan Irfanoglu1, Amritha Nayak1,5, Laura Reyes1,5, Shruti Japee3, Irini Manoli4, Carlo Pierpaoli1, and Moebius Syndrome Research Consortium6,7,8

1Quantitative Medical Imaging Section, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, 2NIH MRI Research Facility, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, 3Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, 4Medical Genomics and Metabolic Genetics Branch, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, 5Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Bethesda, MD, United States, 6NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, 7Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, 8Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, NY, United States

Despite its clear clinical and research usefulness, high quality in-vivo diffusion MRI imaging of the brainstem and the cervical spine has been challenging due to susceptibility-induced distortions and ghosting in echo planar images (EPI). In this study, we propose an acquisition and data processing strategy that can be carried out on clinical scanners with commonly available EPI sequences with good resolution and in a reasonable scan time (less than 30 minutes). We apply this acquisition strategy to the study of pyramidal decussation in subjects with Moebius syndrome and mirror movements.

This abstract and the presentation materials are available to members only; a login is required.

Join Here