Simultaneous Diffusion and T1 Weighted Contrast Imaging for Human Brain Mapping

Introduction: Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is conventionally performed using echo planar imaging (EPI) for human brain mapping. However, EPI suffers from susceptibility distortion, requiring elaborate image post processing. Besides, DTI alone is limited in assessing gray and white matter boundaries of the brain, which is important for accurately imaging brain atrophy. The goal of this study was to design and evaluate simultaneous diffusion and T1 weighting high resolution imaging for human brain mapping. Materials and Methods: Three dimensional Magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo (3D MPRAGE) with T1 weighting, which is generally the method of choice for mapping gray and white matter structures in the brain, was extended to incorporate diffusion encoding using simulation and experiment to develop high resolution DTI and T1-weighted human brain data. Results: It is shown that the incorporation of DTI contrast (i.e. fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD)) into T1 weighted 3D MPRAGE using simulations as well as experimental results from in-vivo human brain studies at 4 Tesla magnetic field strength improves the contrast between gray and white matter sub-structural boundaries. Moreover, incorporating diffusion encoding into 3D MPRAGE avoids the inherent image distortions typically seen in EPI based DTI.Conclusion: This study suggests DTI weighted 3D MPRAGE combined with T1w is feasible for human brain imaging and expected to benefit improved assessment of gray/white matter boundaries.