Development of template construction pipeline for NM-MRI and SMwI images

Motivation: Atlas-based study is an important tool in medical imaging. However, for NM-MRI and SMwI, there is no developed public template, making atlas-based research difficult. Goal(s): The purpose of this work was to develop T1-weighted (T1w), NM-MRI, and SMwI templates to allow atlas-based multimodal analysis for slab images. Approach: We utilized iterative multimodal template creation approaches and cropped the image to the periphery of the ROI that is least affected by the capture angle. Results: The proposed templates achieved higher image quality, especially for the Substantia nigra region, and allowed accurate registration across subjects and modalities when compared to previous templates. Impact: By constructing the high quality template of NM-MRI and SMwI, atlas-based analysis can be used to NM-MRI and SMwI.