Distortion Correction Improves DTI Visualization of the Microscopic Elements of the Medial Temporal Lobe

Michael Zeineh¹, Samantha J. Holdsworth¹, Mansi B. Parekh¹, Stefan Skare², Roland Bammer³

Abnormal neuronal connectivity may be important in disease states involving the medial temporal lobes (MTL), including Alzheimers disease and temporal lobe epilepsy. Our prior work pushed the resolving power of DTI to near-mm isotropic voxel size and utilized a detailed segmentation to characterize the major subregions and pathways of the MTL. However, DTI data is subject to echo-planar (EPI) distortion that complicates coregistration with structural images, making segmentation difficult. Additionally, this distortion can create inaccuracies in tractography. In this study, we applied distortion-correction to our source EPI data and found improved structural accuracy.