Tractography – basic principals of imaging techniques of neural tracts
J. Poláková Mištinová(1), Z. Lišková(2), J. Bilický(1)
1 Rádiologická klinika LFUK, SZU a UN Bratislava
2 Radiológia s.r.o., Bratislava
MR tractography is imaging method, which allows visualisation of neural tracts. Basic principle is correlation between wter diffusion and brain structure. White brain matter is arranged by multiple fibers, and these are bound together to axons. Axonal membrane, myeline and other structures affect Brownian movement of water molecules in white matter. Tractography follows white matter tracts from voxel to voxel, and the direction of tract depends of main vector of diffusion tensor. MR tractography is widely used in research and diagnostics of tumors, cerebral ischemia, epilepsy and in demyelinating and dysmyelinating diseases. Tractography has large contibution in neuro surgery, in preoperative follow up of the patient.
Key words: MR – magnetic resonance, tractography, vector, diffusion, CNS – central nervous system, neural tracts.
