Xin Fan1, Guanghua Xiao2, Kristin
Martin-Cook3, Roger Rosenberg3, Myron Weiner4,
Hao Huang1
1Advanced Imaging Research Center,
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 2Department
of Clinical Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center,
Dallas, TX, United States; 3Department of Neurology, University of
Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States; 4Department
of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX,
United States
Conventional
VBM (voxel-based-morphometry) approaches delineate the abnormality at the
voxel level. However, it is the information reflected from whole white matter
tracts that have clinical importance. In this study, with no a priori
information, this novel atlas-based approach has been used to examine fractional
anisotropy (FA) of DTI of all 50 major white matter tracts at the tract level
to detect white matter disruption in Alzheimer disease (AD). The proposed
method is highly efficient, accurate, makes comprehensive examination of all
major tracts and allows comparison of disruption level of these tracts.