Visualizing white matter fiber structure in human brain using diffusion tensor imaging

Objective To visualize the matter fibers of human brain by diffusion tensor MR imaging, and to investigate the consistency between the imaging and anatomic descriptions. Methods Twenty healthy volunteers were examined by MRI and single shot echo-planar diffusion tensor imaging (b=0, 500 s/mm~2), post processing were made in SIEMENS Leonardo workstation using SIEMENS Standar 12 dirs software to reconstruct the white matter fibers. Results Visualizing the white matter fibers of human brain such as, corticospinal tract, corticobulbar tract, corpus callosum, cingulum, superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, superior fronto-occipital fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus. Each fiber need selecting appreciative regions of interest (ROI) and FA threshold, angle threshold, step length and number of sampling in a voxel size. The images shown on diffusion tensor tractography was well consistent with the anatomic features. Conclusion The white matter of human brain could be visualized by diffusion tensor imaging in vitro, with the imaging features being well consistent with anatomic descriptions. Diffusion tensor imaging is a reliable method to study the white matter fibers of human brain.