Correction of eddy current-induced artefacts in diffusion tensor imaging using iterative cross-correlation

Geometric distortions of echo-planar images produced by the strong eddy currents present in the diffusion tensor imaging experiment are a major confound to the accurate quantification of diffusion coefficients, and measures of diffusion anisotropy based upon them. Here we investigate how the method of iterative cross-correlation (ICC) of baseline and diffusion-weighted images (DWIs) originally proposed by Haselgrove and Moore (Magn. Reson. Med. 36:960–964; 1996) can be extended to correct high b-value DWIs, without the need for extrapolation of distortion parameters determined from low b-value images. Monte Carlo simulations of synthetic brain images show that the maximum value of the trace of the b-matrix, Tr(b), at which distorted DWIs can be accurately corrected by direct comparison with the undistorted baseline image is approximately 300 s mm−2. Removal of the cerebrospinal fluid signal greatly extends this value of Tr(b) (up to approximately 2000 s mm−2), thereby allowing direct comparison of baseline and distorted images. The use of ICC distortion parameters determined from separate calibrations of water phantom images is also investigated, and found to be effective in correcting geometric distortions observed in the DWIs collected as part of a human volunteer diffusion tensor imaging study. This work suggests that distorted DWIs acquired at high values of b may be corrected using the ICC algorithm without collecting additional low b-value images, thus allowing simplified methods of measuring the apparent diffusion tensor D, based on collecting a small number of DWIs, to be implemented in quantitative patient examinations.