Abstract #3587

Improved Results of Voxel-Based DTI Analyses by Using Non-Rigid Coregistration and a Population-Based DTI Atlas

Caroline A. Sage¹, Wim Van Hecke², Ronald Peeters¹, Jan Sijbers², Wim Robberecht³, Judith Verhoeven⁴, Sabine Deprez¹, Paul Parizel⁵, Guy Marchal¹, Alexander Leemans⁶, Stefan Sunaert¹

¹Radiology, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; ²Vision Lab, University of Antwerp, Wilrijk, Belgium; ³Neurology, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; ⁴Pediatrics, University Hospitals of the Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; ⁵Radiology, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium; ⁶CUBRIC, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Results of voxel-based analyses of DTI data are dependent on various factors such as the coregistration technique and choice of reference system. In this study, non-rigid coregistration and a population-based DTI atlas that contains the complete diffusion information are used to validate our previously published results of voxel-based analyses in which DTI data of 28 patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis were compared to those of 26 healthy controls. We demonstrate that, as the residual variance after spatial normalization to the atlas is lowered, the results of the voxel-based analyses are improved, especially for the mean diffusivity.