The impact of susceptibility correction on diffusion metrics in adolescents

Diffusion tensor imaging is a widely used imaging method of brain white matter, but it is prone to imaging artifacts. The data corrections can affect the measured values.

To explore the impact of susceptibility correction on diffusion metrics.

A cohort of 27 healthy adolescents (18 boys, 9 girls, mean age 12.7 years) underwent 3-T MRI, and we collected two diffusion data sets (anterior-posterior). The data were processed both with and without susceptibility artifact correction. We derived fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity and histogram data of fiber length distribution from both the corrected and uncorrected data, which were collected from the corpus callosum, corticospinal tract and cingulum bilaterally.

Fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity values significantly differed when comparing the pathways in all measured tracts. The fractional anisotropy values were lower and the mean diffusivity values higher in the susceptibility-corrected data than in the uncorrected data. We found a significant difference in total tract length in the corpus callosum and the corticospinal tract.

This study indicates that susceptibility correction has a significant effect on measured fractional anisotropy, and on mean diffusivity values and tract lengths. To receive reliable and comparable results, the correction should be used systematically.