Direct Quantitative Comparison Between Cross-Relaxation Imaging and Diffusion Tensor Imaging of the Human Brain

Hunter R. Underhill¹, Chun Yuan¹, Vasily L. Yarnykh¹

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been proven to be an effective tool for the visualization of white matter fiber tracts in the human brain based on the anisotropic diffusion effect. Parameters acquired during cross-relaxation imaging (CRI) that describe magnetization transfer have also been shown to have a close association with major fiber tracts in the human brain. In this 3.0T study, we report the results of quantitative comparisons between the CRI parameters that describe the fraction of macromolecular protons and the magnetization transfer rate constant and the principle scalar metric of DTI, fractional anisotropy, in the human brain in vivo.