Abstract
Structural brain imaging provides a critical framework for performing stereotactic and intraoperative MRI-guided surgical procedures, with procedural efficacy often dependent upon visualization of the target with which to operate. Here, we describe tools for in vivo, subject-specific visualization and demarcation of regions within the brainstem. High-field 7T susceptibility-weighted imaging and diffusion-weighted imaging of the brain were collected using a customized head coil from eight rhesus macaques. Fiber tracts including the superior cerebellar peduncle, medial lemniscus, and lateral lemniscus were identified using high-resolution probabilistic diffusion tractography, which resulted in three-dimensional fiber tract reconstructions that were comparable to those extracted from sequential application of a two-dimensional nonlinear brain atlas warping algorithm. In the susceptibility-weighted imaging, white matter tracts within the brainstem were also identified as hypointense regions, and the degree of hypointensity was age-dependent. This combination of imaging modalities also enabled identifying the location and extent of several brainstem nuclei, including the periaqueductal gray, pedunculopontine nucleus, and inferior colliculus. These clinically-relevant high-field imaging approaches have potential to enable more accurate and comprehensive subject-specific visualization of the brainstem and to ultimately improve patient-specific neurosurgical targeting procedures, including deep brain stimulation lead implantation.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | e0127049 |
Journal | PloS one |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - May 12 2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2015 Zitella et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Center for Magnetic Resonance Research (CMRR) tags
- MRE