1. Utah Algorithms Progress and Future Work
Tom Fletcher
Ross Whitaker, PI

2. Overview Current progress and tools Future work
Diffusion image filtering
Registration of DWI
White matter pathway analysis
Future work
Combining structural and diffusion data
Particle-based shape analysis

3. Diffusion Image Filtering
Diffusion-weighted images typically have very low SNR
Noise in MRI is Rician, which is biased at low SNR
We developed an edge-preserving filter to remove Rician noise in DWI
Slicer module (Sylvain Gouttard) available in NA-MIC toolkit

4. DTI Filtering Slicer Module

5. DTI Filtering Result

6. DWI Registration Misregistration of DWI due to
Eddy currents
Head motion
Implemented the method in Rohde, et al., MRM 2004
Registration software (Ran Tao) is available as a command line tool

7. Registration Result

8. White Matter Pathway Analysis
Region-to-region analysis
Volumetric representation of pathway
Find minimal cost path in DTI data by solving a Hamilton-Jacobi PDE
Pathway solver (Won-Ki Jeong) is available as a command line tool

9. White Matter Pathways

10. Regression of FA Raw Data Scatterplot Regression w/ std dev
Genu of the Corpus Callosum (CC)

11. Combining Structural and Diffusion Imagery
We would like to use cortical regions to seed white matter pathways
Combine DTI analysis with grey matter / cortical thickness measures
Major challenge is distortions in DWI due to field inhomegeneity
Lack of open source tools to solve these problems

12. Particle-Based Shape Analysis
Developed a particle-based method for automatic shape model and correspondence construction (Cates, et al., IPMI 2007)
Handles complex geometry and topology
Collaboration with UNC to extend to cortical surface correspondences (Oguz, et al., ISBI 2008 submission)

13. Conclusion Working towards an open source DTI processing pipeline
Building tools for shape analysis
Looking forward: combine structural with diffusion tensor imagery