Multi-valued geodesic based fiber tracking for diffusion tensor imaging

In this paper, we propose a new geodesic based algorithm for diffusion tensor fiber tracking. This technique is based on computing multi-valued solutions from the Euler-Lagrange form of the geodesic equations. Compared to other geodesic based approaches, multi-valued solutions at each grid point have been considered other than just computing the viscosity solution. This allows us to compute fibers in a region with sharp orientation, or when the correct physical solution is not the fiber computed from the first arrival time. Compared to the classical stream-line approach, our approach is less sensitive to noise, since the complete tensor is used. We also compare our algorithm with the PDE approach, using the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. We show that in the cases where the U-shaped bundles appear, our algorithm can capture the underlying fiber structure while other approaches may fail. The results for a realistic synthetic data field is shown for both methods.

@InProceedings { STVH09,
  author       = "Sepasian, N. and Thije Boonkkamp, J.H.M. ten and Vilanova, Anna and Haar Romeny, B.M. ter",
  title        = "Multi-valued geodesic based fiber tracking for diffusion tensor imaging",
  booktitle    = "MICCAI 2009 Workshop on Diffusion Modelling and the Fibre Cup (DMFC 2009, London, UK, September 24th, 2009)",
  pages        = "7--14",
  year         = "2009",
  url          = "http://graphics.tudelft.nl/Publications-new/2009/STVH09"
}