A template-based procedure for determining white matter integrity in the internal capsule early after stroke.

The integrity of descending white matter pathways, measured by fractional anisotropy from DW-MRI, is a key prognostic indicator of motor recovery after stroke. Barriers to translation of fractional anisotropy measures into routine clinical practice include the time required for manually delineating volumes of interest (VOIs), and inter-examiner variability in this process. This study investigated whether registering and then editing template volumes of interest 'as required' would improve inter-examiner reliability compared with manual delineation, without compromising validity.