The Open Medical Imaging Journal

2009, 3 : 21-27
Published online 2009 December 11. DOI: 10.2174/1874347100903010021
Publisher ID: TOMIJ-3-21

Separation of Fiber Tracts within the Human Cingulum Bundle using Single-Shot STEAM DTI

Karaus Alexander , Hofer Sabine and Frahm Jens
Biomedizinische NMR Forschungs GmbH, 37070 Göttingen, Germany.

ABSTRACT

The cingulum bundle is a complex white matter fiber tract of the human brain that comprises long association fibers, commissural fibers, and various U-fibers. It is located above the corpus callosum and interconnects limbic structures. A decline of the cingulum fiber integrity has been observed in patients with mental disorders such as schizophrenia. In this work a separation of the bi-hemispheric lateral longitudinal striae and selected U-fibers was achieved by fiber tractography of the cingulum bundle based on diffusion tensor imaging at 1.8 mm isotropic spatial resolution. Anatomic accuracy without susceptibility-induced distortions was ensured by diffusion-weighted single-shot STEAM MRI with 24 gradient directions and b values of 0 and 1000 s mm-2. Extending earlier versions, the STEAM sequence combined variable flip angles, centrically reordered phase encoding, partial Fourier encoding, and parallel imaging.

Keywords:

Human brain, lateral longitudinal stria, U-fibers.