Reducing Invalid Connections with Microstructure-Driven Tractography

Gabriel Girard (1) , Alessandro Daducci (2) , Laurent Petit (3) , Jean-Philippe Thiran (4) , Kevin Whittingstall (5) , Rachid Deriche (6) , Demian Wassermann (6) , Maxime Descoteaux (1)

1 SCIL - Sherbrooke Connectivity Imaging Lab [Sherbrooke]
2 SP Lab - Laboratoire de Traitement du signal [EPFL] / Signal Processing Laboratories
3 IMN - Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives [Bordeaux]
4 LTS5 - Signal Processing Laboratory [Lausanne]
5 UdeS - Université de Sherbrooke
6 ATHENA - Computational Imaging of the Central Nervous System

Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) tractography has become the tool of choice to probe the human brain's white matter (WM) in vivo. However, tractography algorithms produce a large number erroneous/invalid streamlines [1] largely due to complex ambiguous local fiber configurations (e.g. crossing, kissing or fanning). Moreover, the relationship between the resulting streamlines and the underlying WM microstructure characteristics, such as axon diameter, remains poorly understood [2]. The distinctive aspect of our tractography algorithm from previous methods is the active use of microstructure information about fascicles during the tracking. This enables us to solve areas of complex tissue configuration and separate parallel fascicles with different microstructure characteristics, hence improving the overall tractography process.

Domaines: Imagerie

Gabriel Girard, Alessandro Daducci, Laurent Petit, Jean-Philippe Thiran, Kevin Whittingstall, et al.. Reducing Invalid Connections with Microstructure-Driven Tractography. ISMRM workshops: Breaking the Barriers of Diffusion MRI , Sep 2016, Lisbonne, Portugal. ⟨hal-01408737⟩