Atlas-based improved prediction of magnetic field inhomogeneity for distortion correction of EPI data

We describe a method for atlas-based segmentation of structural MRI for calculation of magnetic fieldmaps. CT data sets are used to construct a probabilistic atlas of the head and corresponding MR is used to train a classifier that segments soft tissue, air, and bone. Subject-specific fieldmaps are computed from the segmentations using a perturbation field model. Previous work has shown that distortion in echo-planar images can be corrected using predicted fieldmaps. We obtain results that agree well with acquired fieldmaps: 90% of voxel shifts from predicted fieldmaps show subvoxel disagreement with those computed from acquired fieldmaps. In addition, our fieldmap predictions show statistically significant improvement following inclusion of the atlas.