Diffusion Tensor Imaging Distortion Correction with T1

Ki Sueng Choi^1,2, Alexandre R. Franco², Paul E. Holtzheimer², Helen S. Mayberg², Xiaoping P. Hu¹

DW-EPI is very sensitive to B0 inhomogeneities that produce geometric distortion, primarily along the phase-encoding direction. As a result, artifacts degrade the ability of using diffusion measures and diffusion tractography. Several different techniques were suggested for correcting susceptibility distortion. However, to apply these correction techniques, additional images (field map, T2) are required. In this work, we examine susceptibility distortion correction using image based non-linear registration along with inverting the intensity of the T1 image. This method exhibits better performance for geometrical distortion correction in frontal region and an ability to analyze clinical diffusion data without additional collection of images.