Comparison of Fiber Tractography Based on Susceptibility Tensor Imaging & Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Chunlei Liu¹, ², Bing Wu¹, Wei Li¹

A method of fiber tractography based on STI was demonstrated. STI experiments of perfusion-fixed mouse brains were conducted and magnetic susceptibility tensors were calculated for each voxel with regularization and decomposed into its eigensystem. The major eigenvector was found to be aligned with the underlying fiber orientation. Following the orientation of the major eigenvector, we were able to map distinctive fiber pathways in 3D. As a comparison, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and DTI fiber tractography were also conducted on the same specimens. The relationship between STI and DTI fiber tracts was explored with similarities and differences identified.