Diffusion tensor echo planar imaging with high spatial resolution and its applications

Magnetic Resonance Imaging is at present the only imaging technique available to measure diffusion of water and metabolites in humans in vivo. It provides vital insights to brain connectivity and has proved to be an important tool in diagnosis and therapy planning in many neurological diseases such as brain tumours, ischaemia and multiple sclerosis. This project focuses on the development of a high resolution diffusion tensor imaging technique. In this thesis, the basic theory of Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging is presented. The technical challenges encountered during development of these techniques will be discussed, with proposed solutions. New sequences with high spatial resolution have been developed and the results are compared with the standard technique more commonly used. A fiber tracking algorithm based on following the principal eigenvector of the diffusion tensor in each voxel is implemented and tested on the data acquired by the new sequence under various conditions