Abstract #2369

Direct Visualization of Thalamic Structures: Comparison of Super-Resolution Track-Density Imaging to Conventional MRI at 7T

Fernando Calamante^1,2, Se-Hong Oh³, Jacques-Donald Tournier^1,2, Sung-Yeon Park³, Jun-Young Chung³, Young-Don Son³, Je-Geun Chi³, Graeme D. Jackson^1,2, Young-Bo Kim³, Alan Connelly^1,2, Zang-Hee Cho³

¹Brain Research Institute, Florey Neuroscience Institutes, Heidelberg West, Victoria, Australia; ²Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; ³Neuroscience Research Institute, Gachon University of Medicine & Science, Incheon, Korea, Republic of

Accurate identification of sub-thalamic nuclei is of huge importance for many clinical applications, particularly those involving deep brain stimulation; however, this is not easily achieved with clinical MRI scanners. While this is now possible at ultra-high field MRI, access to this technology remains limited. The technique of super-resolution track-density imaging (TDI) has been shown to create images with very high resolution and anatomical contrast, based on the results from whole-brain fibre-tracking. In this study, we assess the role of TDI for direct visualisation of sub-thalamic nuclei and compare the results to those obtained using T1-weighted MRI at 7T.