A Pediatric Brain Template for Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Introduction Diffusion tensor imaging reveals detailed structural information about white matter tracts, and is increasingly used to study the pediatric population. It is highly desirable to construct age appropriate templates so the findings in patients could be reported using coordinates in a standard stereotaxic brain space, and at all brain locations the diffusion measures of an individual patient could be compared with pre-determined normal range. We constructed a DTI template from a group of normal children and adolescents and demonstrated utilities of such a template.