Karla L. Miller1, Gwenaelle Douaud1,
Saad Jbabdi1, Timothy EJ Behrens1, Jennifer A. McNab2
1FMRIB Centre, Oxford University,
Oxford, Oxon, United Kingdom; 2AA Martinos Center, Massachusetts
General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States
Despite
its popularity, there is relatively little data validating diffusion tensor
imaging and tractography against gold-standard histology or dissection
methods. Diffusion imaging of whole, ex-vivo human brains could provide this
link by allowing comparison in the same tissue. We present results obtained
using diffusion-weighted spin echo (DW-SE) and steady-state free precession
sequences (DW-SSFP), each with 6 hours scan time on a clinical scanner. Both
methods are able to track the corticospinal tract and corpus callosum.
However, tractography of DW-SSFP data produces better quality tracking due to
the lower uncertainty on principal tract direction.