DTI-based segmentation and quantification of human brain lateral ventricular CSF volumetry and mean diffusivity: Validation, age, gender effects and biophysical implications

The human brain lateral ventricular (LV) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) volume has been used as a neuroimaging marker of brain changes in health and disease. The LV CSF diffusivity may offer a useful quality assurance measure and become a potential noninvasive marker of deep brain temperature. In this work we sought to validate a method for human brain lateral ventricular (LV) cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) contrast to provide LV volume and corresponding DTI metrics. We compared LV volume obtained using DTI with that obtained using validated segmentations of the LV on T1-weighted data. DTI and T1-weighted data were acquired at 3 T on 49 healthy males and 56 age-matched females aged 18-59 years. We showed histogram distributions of LV DTI metrics to establish quality assurance measures. We also analyzed the age and gender effects of LV volume and diffusivity. LV volumes estimated using both T1-weighted and DTI correlated strongly in males and females (ICC = 0.99; median Dice index ~ 80%). The LV-to-intracranial volume percentage increased significantly with age only in males, using the DTI-based approach (r = 0.39; p = 0.005). LV CSF Mean diffusivity was greater in males than females ((~ 1.2%; p = 0.03). Mean diffusivity of lateral ventricular CSF decreased significantly with age in healthy adults (r = − 0.30; p = 0.02). Our results highlight the importance of age and gender-based analyses and the potential of LV diffusivity measures as a quantitative marker.