Journal
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
Volume 33, Issue 12, Pages 2831-2842Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/hbm.21404
Keywords
STN; subthalamic nucleus; SWI; iron; susceptibility; phase
Funding
- National Institute of Health (NIH R01) [MH74457]
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany [FKZ 01EO001]
- Veni [Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NOW)]
- EPSRC [EP/I026924/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- MRC [G0901321] Funding Source: UKRI
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [EP/I026924/1] Funding Source: researchfish
- Medical Research Council [G0901321] Funding Source: researchfish
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Histological studies have shown a relatively high iron concentration in the subthalamic nucleus (STN). T2- and T2*-weighted sequences have previously been used to visualize the STN in vivo. The phase information of gradient-echo images reflects the magnetic tissue properties more directly, e.g., iron is more paramagnetic than water. Unfortunately, phase images suffer from non-local effects and orientation dependency. The goal of this study is to delineate the STN more precisely using susceptibility maps, calculated from phase images, which directly index magnetic tissue properties while removing the non-local effects and orientation dependency. Use of 7T MRI enables high spatial resolution with good signal to noise ratio (SNR). Eight healthy subjects were scanned at 7T using a high-resolution 3D gradient-echo sequence. Susceptibility maps were calculated from phase data using a thresholding Fourier approach and a regularization approach using spatial priors. The susceptibility maps clearly distinguish the STN from the adjacent substantia nigra (SN). Their susceptibilities are quantitatively different (0.06 and 0.1 ppm for the STN and SN, respectively). These maps allowed the STN, SN, and the red nucleus to be manually segmented, thus providing 3D visualization of their boundaries. In sum, the STN can be more clearly distinguished from adjacent structures in susceptibility maps than in T2*-weighted images or phase images. Hum Brain Mapp 33:2831-2842, 2012. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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