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.
Keywords: image correction strategy; non-human primates; preclinical research; spinal cord injury.
© 2019 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.