Routine Development for Artefact Correction and Information Extraction from Diffusion Weighted Echo Planar Images of Rats

Sammanfattning: Biologists and physicians study complex biologic phenomena in which they use advanced imaging methods. They acquire images containing a lot of information which must be extracted in a correct way. This requires computer skills and knowledge in image processing methods which they seldom have. To overcome the problem, this master thesis aimed to develop a routine for artefact correction and information extraction from images acquired in a research project at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. By developing the routine, the thesis showed how software developed for images of human can be applied to images of rats. The routine handles formatting issues and artefact corrections, calculates diffusion metrics, and performs statistical tests on spatially aligned magnetic resonance images of rats acquired with diffusion weighted echo planar imaging. The routine was verified by analysing the images that it had processed and was considered to create reliable images. Future studies within the field should focus on developing atlases of rats and continue the work with identifying how software developed for images of human can be applied to images of rats.