RSNA 2019

Abstract Archives of the RSNA, 2019


SSJ19-01

Development and Evaluation of a High-Resolution Structural Template for Studies in Older Adults

Tuesday, Dec. 3 3:00PM - 3:10PM Room: S404CD



Participants
Mohammad Rakeen Niaz, Chicago, IL (Presenter) Nothing to Disclose
Abdur Raquib Ridwan, MSc, Chicago , IL (Abstract Co-Author) Nothing to Disclose
Xiaoxiao Qi, BEng, Chicago, IL (Abstract Co-Author) Nothing to Disclose
David A. Bennett, MD, Chicago, IL (Abstract Co-Author) Nothing to Disclose
Konstantinos Arfanakis, PhD, Chicago, IL (Abstract Co-Author) Nothing to Disclose

For information about this presentation, contact:

mniaz@hawk.iit.edu

PURPOSE

Human brain structural MRI templates with low spatial resolution lack important fine details due to partial volume effects. The purpose of this work was to introduce a novel approach for high-resolution template construction based on principles of super-resolution, and using this technique, to develop a high-resolution structural template of the older adult brain.

METHOD AND MATERIALS

T1-weighted brain MRI data from 222 non-demented older adults (65-95 age-range, male:female=1:1) participating in the Memory and Aging Project were used in this work. The raw images (1mm isotropic) were rigidly and non-linearly aligned in a 0.5mm resolution space. The resulting non-linear deformations were utilized to map the image intensities of the rigidly transformed 0.5mm resolution images to exact physical locations in the 0.5mm template space, eliminating interpolations that occur in conventional template-building method. The final intensity in each voxel in template space was calculated as the weighted average of the intensities contained in that voxel using a Gaussian kernel. The new template, referred to as IIT-Aging_0.5mm, was quantitatively compared to other high-resolution templates of the older and younger adult brain, in terms of image quality and in terms of the spatial normalization accuracy achieved when they are used as references for alignment of structural images from a large number of older adults.

RESULTS

The IIT-Aging_0.5mm template has higher image sharpness, exhibited by larger high spatial frequency content in the normalized power spectra. Fine structures were resolved in IIT-Aging_0.5mm compared to MCALT_0.5mm and IIT-Aging. Visual inspection revealed atypical brain features (artifacts) in the cortex of MCALT_0.5mm (red circles), which are not present in the other templates. The accuracy of inter-subject spatial normalization was higher when using IIT-Aging_0.5mm. The IIT-Aging and IIT-Aging_0.5mm templates required lower deformation.

CONCLUSION

The IIT-Aging_0.5mm template is a high-quality, high-resolution structural template of the older adult brain that provides higher spatial normalization accuracy than other templates, even for normalization of lower resolution older adult data.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE/APPLICATION

The IIT-Aging_0.5mm template is a high-resolution template containing important fine details of older adult brain and allows higher spatial normalization accuracy for normalization of older adult data

Printed on: 03/01/22