dMRI Fiber Tracking with Functional MRI of White Matter
Dong Xiaofeng1, Yang Zhipeng2*, Wu Xi1
1(School of Computer Science and Technology, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China) 2(School of Electronic Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China)
Abstract：Diffusion MRI based tractography is the primary tool for mapping white matter structures in the brain. However, existing tractography algorithms are constrained by the diffusion MRI resolution and imaging mechanism, and the accuracy would greatly be reduced when streamlines enter the boundary region between white matter and gray matter. In order to overcome this defect, a new diffusion MRI tractography algorithm combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging is proposed in this work. We introduced the spatial correlation tensor derived from functional magnetic resonance imaging signal anisotropy in the white matter to indirectly describe the geometrical information of the fiber bundle. Then particle filter theory was used to estimate the directional probability distribution and reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of the boundary region of white matter. Finally, the proposed method was used to tracking on functional images of visual stimulation of 8 adults. There were 800 fibers reconstructed in each subject. The average length of the reconstructed fibers reached (18.47±1.82) mm and the coverage of streamline endpoints along the white matter gray matter interface reached 25.15%±1.86%. The results showed that the proposed method effectively reconstructed the white matter fiber path of the brain, especially the area where there were errors in the fiber bundle reconstruction of boundary area between the white matter and gray matter due to the partial volume effect. In conclusion, the proposed method can obtain more accurate results than the traditional tractography methods.
董小凤, 杨智鹏, 吴锡. 融合白质fMRI的dMRI纤维追踪重建研究[J]. 中国生物医学工程学报, 2021, 40(4): 419-428.
Dong Xiaofeng, Yang Zhipeng, Wu Xi. dMRI Fiber Tracking with Functional MRI of White Matter. Chinese Journal of Biomedical Engineering, 2021, 40(4): 419-428.
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