Subject-specific detection of macro- and micro-structural alterations of deep gray matter nuclei using submillimeter 7T quantitative MRI

High-resolution 7T MRI allows to directly visualize deep gray matter nuclei (DGN), especially within the thalamus, and building reference ranges of volumes and relaxation times for these structures is of clinical relevance. Methods to automatically segment DGN at 7T have been recently proposed. In this study, we segmented DGN from a cohort of 132 healthy subjects scanned with the MP2RAGE at 7T to obtain both T1-weighted images and T1 maps. Reference ranges of volumes and T1 values were established and proved valuable in revealing both macro- and micro-structural tissue alterations in selected cases of patients with neurodegeneration.