Diffusion MRI Tractography of Crossing Fibers by Cone-Beam ODF Regularization

Since the advent of high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) techniques in diffusion MRI great efforts have been taken in order to reconstruct complex white-matter structures, such as crossing, branching and kissing fibers. However, even highly sophisticated fiber tracking schemes, such as probabilistic tracking, suffer from the data’s poor signal-to-noise (SNR) ratio. In this paper we present a novel regularization approach for q-ball fields, exploiting structural information within the data. We also propose a straightforward deterministic tracking algorithm, allowing delineation of even non-dominant pathways through crossing regions. Results from a phantom study with a biological phantom as well as a patient study, in which we reconstruct the pyramidal tract, emphasize the method’s efficiency.