Sulci density map to aid in use of apparent diffusion coefficient for therapy evaluation

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Radiology
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• Accurate assessment of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) is crucial for therapy evaluation.
• Variations in brain tissue properties, such as sulci density, can affect ADC measurements.
• Understanding these variations is key to improving diagnostic accuracy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate variations in human brain sulci density.
• To determine the impact of positional changes on sulci density.
• To enhance the accuracy of apparent diffusion coefficient measurements in clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of sagittal, axial, and coronal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans.
• Quantification of the coefficient of variance of pixel intensity as a function of position.
• Comparison of sulci density across different brain slice locations.

Main Results:

• Significant decreases in sulci density were observed in medial and lateral brain slices in the sagittal direction (11.0%+/-4.8% and 7.0%+/-12.2%, respectively).
• Similar positional variations in sulci density were found in axial and coronal MRI scans.
• These findings indicate that brain region and orientation influence sulci density.

Conclusions:

• Positional variations in human brain sulci density are present across different MRI scan orientations.
• These variations can influence apparent diffusion coefficient measurements.
• Accounting for sulci density changes may lead to more accurate therapy evaluations using diffusion imaging.