BACKGROUND The relatively tiny spinal cord of non-human primate (NHP) causes increased challenge in diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) post-processing. This study aimed to establish a reliable correction strategy applied to clinical DTI images of NHP. METHODS Six normal and partial spinal cord injury (SCI) rhesus monkeys underwent 3T MR scanning. A correction strategy combining multiple iterations and non-rigid deformation was used for DTI image post-processing. Quantitative evaluations were then conducted to investigate effects of distortion correction. RESULTS After correction, longitudinal geometric distortion, global distortion, and residual distance errors were all significantly decreased (P < 0.05). Fractional anisotropy at the injured site was remarkably lower than that at the contralateral site (P = 0.0488) and was substantially lower than those at the adjacent superior (P = 0.0157) and inferior (P = 0.0128) areas at the same side. CONCLUSIONS Our image correction strategy can improve the quality of the DTI images of NHP thoracic cords, contributing to the development of SCI preclinical research.

中文翻译：

---

恒河猴胸脊髓扩散张量成像的图像校正。

背景技术非人类灵长类动物（NHP）的相对较小的脊髓引起扩散张量成像（DTI）后处理的挑战日益增加。这项研究旨在建立适用于NHP临床DTI图像的可靠校正策略。方法六只正常和部分脊髓损伤（SCI）恒河猴接受了3T MR扫描。结合多次迭代和非刚性变形的校正策略用于DTI图像后处理。然后进行定量评估以研究失真校正的效果。结果校正后，纵向几何变形，整体变形和残余距离误差均显着降低（P <0.05）。受伤部位的分数各向异性显着低于对侧部位的分数各向异性（P = 0。0488），并显着低于同一侧的相邻上（P = 0.0157）和下（P = 0.0128）区域。结论我们的图像校正策略可以提高NHP胸索DTI图像的质量，有助于SCI临床前研究的发展。