Abstract #1921

Validation of a Template-Based Approach for Quantitative Tract-Specific Analysis of Diffusion Spectrum Imaging Data

Chieh-En Tseng¹, Yung-Chin Hsu², Yu-Chun Lo³, Wen-Yih Isaac Tseng³,⁴

¹Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan; ²Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; ³Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; ⁴Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

We proposed an automatic tract-specific analysis based on a diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) template. This template-based approach entails transformation of native DSI data to the template, and performs tract-specific analysis on the transformed DSI data. The approach inevitably blurs out the data and may lead to errors in quantitative analysis. To investigate this question, the template-based approach was compared to a native-space approach. Fifteen subjects were analyzed. The results showed that mean generalized fractional anisotropy (GFA) was lower in the template-based approach, but the two approaches showed strong correlation. The results support the use of template-based approach in tract-specific analysis.