Corey Allan Baron1, Christian Beaulieu1
1Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Conventional DTI can be impaired by partial volume effects, particularly for brain structures adjacent to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). We describe two methods of CSF signal reduction that do not increase SAR nor affect scan time: 1) a reduction of repetition time by acquiring DTI data in smaller sets of slices to reduce the signal contributions from long T1 CSF; 2) the application of a small degree of diffusion weighting on the minimal b values to attenuate CSF (i.e. do not acquire b=0 images). The techniques are evaluated using deterministic tractography of the fornix in five individuals.