Abstract #2133

Functional Connectivity Suggests Mean Pathway Radial Diffusivity as a Robust Metric of Anatomic Connectivity

Mark J. Lowe¹, Ken E. Sakaie¹, Katherine Koenig¹, Lael Stone², Robert A. Bermel³, Micheal D. Phillips¹

¹Imaging Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States; ²Neurologic Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States; ³Neurologic Institute, The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, United States

There are several diffusion and fiber tracking-related measures that are used as metrics of functional connectivity. Many of these depend on the tracking algorithm. This makes it difficult to compare different studies. We propose a very simple tensor-based measure as a robust metric of anatomic connectivity that can easily be combined with different tracking algorithms and results in a metric that can be compared across studies.