The Boston ASL Template and Simulator: Initial development and implementation.

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Medical Image Analysis
• Quantitative MRI

Background:

• Structural templates are common in neuroimaging, but functional templates, like those for arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion, are scarce and have low resolution.
• The lack of readily available functional templates hinders studies, especially those not acquiring structural scans.
• High-resolution functional templates are needed for advanced neuroimaging analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel, high-resolution adult template for arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion imaging.
• To create a accompanying simulator for generating synthetic ASL data.
• To provide a valuable resource for neuroimaging research, particularly for studies without structural data.

Main Methods:

• Acquired high-resolution ASL, T1-weighted, and T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery data from 10 healthy volunteers.
• Reconstructed high-resolution perfusion arterial transit time (ATT) and T1 maps.
• Utilized the Advanced Normalization Toolbox for nonlinear template construction, creating a multi-contrast template.

Main Results:

• Developed the Boston ASL Template and Simulator (BATS), offering high-quality, high-resolution perfusion and quantitative templates.
• Templates are available in the Montreal Neurological Institute space with arterial transit time (ATT) and anatomical contrasts.
• Demonstrated utility through examples of ASL data registration and synthetic contrast generation.

Conclusions:

• Introduced BATS, a new collection of ASL templates and a simulator for generating synthetic ASL contrasts.
• BATS provides a valuable tool for neuroimaging analysis, enhancing the utility of ASL data.
• The BATS resource is publicly available for the research community.