Correction of susceptibility-induced distortion in Diffusion Tensor Imaging with a moment-based phase unwrapping method

Abstract

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) is a powerful technique for non-invasive characterisation of normal and pathological tissues, however, it is vulnerable to geometric distortions caused by magnetic field inhomogeneity. In this work, we present a phase unwrapping method that is based on the method of moments. The algorithm is used to generate magnetic field maps and correct susceptibility-induced distortions. MR datasets were acquired using a 3T MRI scanner to investigate consistency of distortion correction by the proposed method. The results demonstrate the relative consistency of the resultant distortion correction, which is critical for longitudinal studies of human diseases using DTI.