Diffusion tensor imaging and tractography for the assessment of leukoaraiosis

Feasibility of acquiring DTI data and constructing fiber tracts for leukoaraiosis study was evaluated. Two healthy male volunteers with either occipital leukoaraiosis or without white matter lesions participated in the study. All data were obtained using GE 1.5 Tesla MRI System, single-shot echo-planar imaging sequence and the following protocols: TR/TE = 17 000/ 101.1 ms, b-value = 0 and 1000 s/mm
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, 30 diffusion encoding directions with 3 sets of unweighted images and 2.0 mm isotropic voxel resolution. The total scan time for each subject was 9.38 minutes. Results obtained showed capability of DTI to distinguish leukoaraiosis from normal white matter. Fiber tractography exhibited a good structural differentiation of nerve fibers in the white matter region. The results were further strengthened by quantitative parameters demonstrating significant differences (p < 0.01) between pathological tissues and normal tissues in the occipital white matter. In conclusion, acquiring DTI data and constructing fiber tractography for assessment of leukoaraiosis was found to be feasible. However, several technical aspects need to be taken into considerations in order to ensure accuracy of the results.