Daniel Salo Reich1,2, Seth A. Smith1,3, Arzu Ozturk1, Eliza M. Gordon-Lipkin2, Sheena K. Farrell2, Peter C.M. van Zijl1,3, Peter A. Calabresi2, Susumu Mori1,3
1Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; 3F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA
Automated tractography is necessary to make tract-specific imaging clinically useful, but implementation in disease is problematic. We investigated an automated tract probability mapping scheme in multiple sclerosis, comparing the results to conventional tractography. We found that the method has consistently lower scan-rescan variability. In the corpus callosum and corticospinal tracts, but not optic radiations, tract-specific MRI indices differed systematically between methods. In the optic tracts, however, the automated method failed. Even in cases with systematic differences, correlation of MRI indices with clinical disability scores was similar. With careful interpretation of results, therefore, this method can be used clinically.