Effect of Acquisition Parameters on the Diffusion Visualization and Quantification of Peripheral Nerves: Diffusion Tensor Imaging to Identify and Quantify Human Nerves in Forearm

Yuxiang Zhou¹, Manickam Kumaravel¹, Vipulkumar S. Patel¹, Kazim Sheikh², Ponnada A. Narayana¹

The effect of spatial resolution, number of diffusion gradient encoding directions (DGED), and number of repetitions on the visualization and quantification of peripheral nerves on the diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in human forearm was investigated. The fractional anisotropy (FA) maps at higher spatial resolution allowed the visualization of superficial radial, median, and ulnar nerves consistently on all the scans, whereas only ulnar and median nerves were clearly visualized at lower spatial resolution. Our results indicate the visualization and the quantification of the diffusion anisotropy of forearm nerves is strongly influenced by the SNR, spatial resolution, and number of DGED. These studies help in the identification of optimum scan parameters for the DTI of peripheral nerves.