AxTract: Toward microstructure informed tractography.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_6C86DD92A289
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
AxTract: Toward microstructure informed tractography.
Journal
Human brain mapping
Author(s)
Girard G., Daducci A., Petit L., Thiran J.P., Whittingstall K., Deriche R., Wassermann D., Descoteaux M.
ISSN
1097-0193 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1065-9471
Publication state
Published
Issued date
11/2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
38
Number
11
Pages
5485-5500
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Diffusion-weighted (DW) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) tractography has become the tool of choice to probe the human brain's white matter in vivo. However, tractography algorithms produce a large number of erroneous streamlines (false positives), largely due to complex ambiguous tissue configurations. Moreover, the relationship between the resulting streamlines and the underlying white matter microstructure characteristics remains poorly understood. In this work, we introduce a new approach to simultaneously reconstruct white matter fascicles and characterize the apparent distribution of axon diameters within fascicles. To achieve this, our method, AxTract, takes full advantage of the recent development DW-MRI microstructure acquisition, modeling, and reconstruction techniques. This enables AxTract to separate parallel fascicles with different microstructure characteristics, hence reducing ambiguities in areas of complex tissue configuration. We report a decrease in the incidence of erroneous streamlines compared to the conventional deterministic tractography algorithms on simulated data. We also report an average increase in streamline density over 15 known fascicles of the 34 healthy subjects. Our results suggest that microstructure information improves tractography in crossing areas of the white matter. Moreover, AxTract provides additional microstructure information along the fascicle that can be studied alongside other streamline-based indices. Overall, AxTract provides the means to distinguish and follow white matter fascicles using their microstructure characteristics, bringing new insights into the white matter organization. This is a step forward in microstructure informed tractography, paving the way to a new generation of algorithms able to deal with intricate configurations of white matter fibers and providing quantitative brain connectivity analysis. Hum Brain Mapp 38:5485-5500, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Keywords
Algorithms, Axons, Brain/diagnostic imaging, Cell Size, Computer Simulation, Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging/methods, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted/methods, Models, Neurological, Nerve Fibers, Myelinated, White Matter/diagnostic imaging, ActiveAx, axon diameter index, diffusion MRI, microstructure, multi-shell acquisition, white matter tractography
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
05/09/2017 9:28
Last modification date
20/08/2019 14:26
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