Abstract #0411

Investigation of the Diffusion Tensor's Primary Eigenvector Correspondence to Tissue Structure in MR Microscopy of the Human Spinal Cord with Direct Comparison to Histology

Brian Hansen¹, Jeremy J. Flint^2,3, Choong Heon-Lee^3,4, Michael Fey⁵, Franck Vincent⁵, Michael A. King⁶, Peter Vestergaard-Poulsen¹, Stephen J. Blackband⁷

¹Center for Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark; ²Department of Neuroscience, University of Florida; ³McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; ⁴Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA; ⁵Bruker Biospin; ⁶Department of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, University of Florida; ⁷Department of Neuroscience, Center for Structural Biology & National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, University of Florida

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tractography (DTT) are regularly used for investigating tissue structure and for delineating white matter tracts. Recently, we proposed a method for comparing DTT results to the histology of the actual tissue on which DTI experiments were performed. Here we present new results obtained using these methods on samples of the ventral horn in human spinal cord. Specifically, we extract the primary eigenvector from DTI measurements at microscopic resolution and compare this microstructural information to myelin-stained histology of the tissue samples employed. Our results confirm that the primary eigenvector reflects microstructure clearly. These results are relevant to techniques in which tissue structure is investigated using the primary eigenvector.