Tensor Dissimilarity Based Adaptive Seeding Algorithm for DT-MRI Visualization with Streamtubes

In this paper, we propose an adaptive seeding strategy for visualization of diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) data using streamtubes. DT-MRI is a medical imaging modality that captures unique water diffusion properties and fiber orientation information of the imaged tissues. Visualizing DT-MRI data using streamtubes has the advantage that not only the anisotropic nature of the diffusion is visualized but also the underlying anatomy of biological structures is revealed. This makes streamtubes significant for the analysis of fibrous tissues in medical images. In order to avoid rendering multiple similar streamtubes, an adaptive seeding strategy is employed which takes into account similarity of tensors in a given region. The goal is to automate the process of generating seed points such that regions with dissimilar tensors are assigned more seed points compared to regions with similar tensors. The algorithm is based on tensor dissimilarity metrics that take into account both diffusion magnitudes and directions to optimize the seeding positions and density of streamtubes in order to reduce the visual clutter. Two recent advances in tensor calculus and tensor dissimilarity metrics are utilized: the Log-Euclidean and the J-divergence. Results show that adaptive seeding not only helps to cull unnecessary streamtubes that would obscure visualization but also do so without having to compute the culled streamtubes, which makes the visualization process faster.