BACKGROUND Magnetic resonance imaging is a noninvasive method of evaluating embryonic development. Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging, which is based on the measuring the directional diffusivity of water molecules, is an established method of evaluating tissue structure. Prolonged imaging times have precluded the use of embryonic diffusion tensor imaging due to motion artifact. Using t...

In vivo diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) derived indices have been demonstrated to quantify accurately whitematter injury after contusion spinal cord injury (SCI) in rodents. In general, a full diffusion tensor analysis requires the acquisition of diffusion-weighted images (DWI) along at least six independent directions of diffusion-sensitizing gradients. Thus, DTI measurements of the rodent cent...

By assuming that orientation information of brain white matter fibers can be inferred from Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DW-MRI) measurements, tractography algorithms provide an estimation of the brain connectivity in vivo. The two key ingredients of tractography are the diffusion model (tensor, high-order tensor, Q-ball, etc.) and the means to deal with uncertainty during the ...

We propose a new way for tracking brain white matter fiber bundles in diffusion tensor maps. Diffusion maps provide information about mobility of water protons in different directions. Assuming that diffusion is more important along axons, this information could lead to the direction of fiber bundles in white matter. Nevertheless, protocoles for diffusion image acquisition suffer from low resol...

This paper outlines the mathematical development and application of two analytically orthogonal tensor invariants sets. Diffusion tensors can be mathematically decomposed into shape and orientation information, determined by the eigenvalues and eigenvectors, respectively. The developments herein orthogonally decompose the tensor shape using a set of three orthogonal invariants that characterize...

Diffusion MRI has become an established research tool for the investigation of tissue structure and orientation. Since its inception, Diffusion MRI has expanded considerably to include a number of variations such as diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) and Q-ball imaging (QBI). The acquisition and analysis of such data is very challenging due to its complexity. Recen...

Introduction Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a potentially powerful way to map white matter fibers in vivo and study effects of development, aging and diseases on specific white matter tracts of interest. However, the clinical utility of DTI is currently limited. Jointly examining diffusion tensor images from many individuals can statistically characterize the complex white matter architectur...

Segmentations of brain lesions from Magnetic Resonance (MR) images is crucial for quantitative analysis of lesion populations in neuroimaging of neurological disorders. We propose a new method for segmenting lesions in brain MRI by inferring the underlying physical models for pathology. We use the reaction-diffusion model as our physical model, where the diffusion process is guided by real diff...

Diffusion Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DW-MRI) is a non-invasive and in vivo medical imaging technique that allows neural tissue architecture to be probed at a microscopic scale. This is possible due to the diffusion of hydrogen atoms within water molecules in the imaging body; thus capturing the microstructure of the underlying tissues. DW-MRI adds to conventional MRI the capability of...

We address the problem of the segmentation of cerebral white matter structures from diffusion tensor images. Our approach is grounded on the theoretically well-founded differential geometrical properties of the space of multivariate normal distributions. We introduce a variational formulation, in the level set framework, to estimate the optimal segmentation according to the following hypothesis...