In Vivo, High Resolution Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) on Naive Rat Spinal Cord: From Cervial to Sacral Cord

Joong Hee Kim¹, Kathleen E. Chaffee¹, Sheng-Kwei Song¹

Synopsis: We present in vivo DTI derived parameter maps of the rat cervical, thoracic, lumbar and sacral cord. Highspatial-resolution diffusion tensor images were acquired at 4.7 T with respiratory-gated spin echo diffusion imaging sequence. The diffusion characteristics of gray and white matter tissue were reflected with DTI derived axial and radial diffusivity, and anisotropy maps providing pixel basis quantitative analysis and tissue localization. The presented rat spinal cord DTI parameters may serve as a reference for future inter-lab comparison on rat spinal cord diffusion measurements.