Novel Whole Brain DTI Segmentation and Diffusion Colour Mapping Technique for Tumour Diagnosis and Boundary Delineation

Introduction: Conventional MRI sequences (e.g. T1, T2 & FLAIR) have limited sensitivity and specificity in diagnosing brain tumours. Contrast enhanced image tumour boundaries may underestimate lesion margins, which is critical for image guided tumour resection and effective radiotherapy planning (given that maximal resection yields improved length of survival for both high and low grade glioma [1][2]). Previous studies have identified differences in diffusion patterns between tumour types [3] however this has yet to be applied in clinical practice. We present a novel whole brain DTI k-medians clustering algorithm that generate Diffusion Colour Maps (DCM). When this technique is applied to cases of intracranial mass lesions, the resultant DCMs display distinctive colour patterns for each tumour type with clearly delineated boundaries.