Abstract #3499

Resolving White Matter Structures of Human Hippocampus in Vivo with High Resolution DTI at 3 T

Dimitrios C. Karampinos^1,2, Anh T. Van³, Brian D. Gonsalves^2,4, John G. Georgiadis^1,2, Bradley P. Sutton^2,5

¹Mechanical Science and Engineering Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; ²Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; ³Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; ⁴Psychology Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA; ⁵Bioengineering Department, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

The hippocampus is a small structure, which is challenging to image in vivo with a clinical scanner. Many studies of hippocampal diseases rely on measurements of hippocampal volume, but the derived metrics are not specific to tissue microanatomy. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can probe the microanatomy, but its application on the hippocampus is hindered by the technical limitations of single-shot EPI. In this work, a multi-shot variable density spiral encoding is implemented for high resolution DTI of the hippocampus at 3 T. The results show the ability of the technique to resolve the hippocampus white matter structures of fimbria and alveus.