A software tool for analyzing Diffusion Tensor MRI (DT-MRI) data is presented. The tool includes methods for segmentation of white matter for automatic definition of seed points for fiber tractography, and methods for 2D slice visualization using different types of tensor glyphs and color-coding schemes.

Introduction Techniques to analyze diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI) datasets in the myocardium are limited. In a recent major advance, diffusion MRI tractography was used to visualize myofiber bundles as continuous 3-dimensional tracts (Circ Cardiovasc Imaging. 2009; 2(3):206-12). However, the tractographic scheme used in this work, while of major value, was purely qualitative. A strong need exist...

In this paper, an original approach for the segmentation of tensor fields is proposed. Based on the modeling of the data by means of Gaussian mixtures directly in the tensor domain, this technique presents a wide range of applications in medical image processing, particularly for Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DT-MRI). The performance of the segmentation method proposed is shown t...

Many mental illnesses are thought to have their origins at early stages of development, encouraging increased research effort related to early neurodevelopment. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has provided us with an unprecedented view of the brain in vivo. More recently, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI/DT-MRI), a magnetic resonance imaging technique, has enabled the characterization of the micr...

This paper deals with the problem of regularizing noisy fields of diffusion tensors, considered as symmetric and semi-positive definite n n matrices (as for instance 2D structure tensors or DT-MRI medical images). We first propose a simple anisotropic PDE-based scheme that acts directly on the matrix coefficients and preserve the semipositive constraint thanks to a specific reprojection step. T...

a 36-year-old woman, diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus (sle), showed bulbar symptoms including impaired memory, slurred speech and swallowing difficulty 7 days before admission. magnetic resonance imaging (mri) showed symmetric confluent hyperintensities in the bilateral cerebral white matter on t2 weighted imaging (t2-wi), extended into the genu of the internal capsule and the crus c...

Major advances in medical imaging raised the need for adapted methods and softwares. The recent emergence of diffusion tensor MRI (DT-MRI) was challenging since data produced by this modality are not simple grey-value images but complex diffusion tensor fields. Tensors are symmetric, positive definite matrices and suffer from a lack of adapted theoretical tools to manipulate them. In this paper...

Line scan diffusion tensor magenetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) of the cervical spinal cord was demonstrated in vivo for unsedated preterm (gestational age 24-30 weeks at birth), very low birthweight (birthweight 620-1300 g) infants at postmenstrual ages from 29-40 weeks. Scalar invariant measures of diffusion [apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and relative anisotropy (RA)] determined from a...

We present a new technique for noninvasively tracing brain white matter fiber tracts using diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI). This technique is based on performing diffusion simulations over a series of overlapping three dimensional diffusion kernels that cover only a small portion of the human brain volume and are geometrically centered upon selected starting voxels where a ...

Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT-MRI) is unique in providing information about both the structural integrity and the orientation of white matter fibers in vivo and, through "tractography", revealing the trajectories of white matter tracts. DT-MRI is therefore a promising technique for detecting differences in white matter architecture between different subject populations. Howeve...