Systematic Comparison of DTI at 7T and 3T: Assessment of FA for Different Acquisition Protocols and SNR in Healthy Subjects

Seongjin Choi¹, Dustin Cunningham¹, Francisco Aguila¹, John Corrigan², Jennifer Bogner², Walter Mysiw², Donald Chakeres¹, Michael V. Knopp¹, Petra Schmalbrock¹

As a part of optimization of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at 7T, we explored how voxel shape, voxel volume, and directional resolution affected FA measurement in normal aging brains at 7T and 3T. We observed statistically identical slopes while significantly different offset between the regression lines for FA along with age. In the study of SNR and FA over a range of reduction factors, we found that reduction factor affected standard deviation of measured FA values instead of FA itself.