A tract-specific framework for white matter morphometry combining macroscopic and microscopic tract features

作者：Zhang Hui^*; Awate Suyash P; Das Sandhitsu R; Woo John H; Melhem Elias R; Gee James C; Yushkevich Paul A

来源：Medical Image Analysis, 2010, 14(5): 666-673.

DOI：10.1016/j.media.2010.05.002

• White matter
• Tract-specific morphometry
• Shape analysis
• Diffusion tensor MRI
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Diffusion tensor imaging plays a key role in our understanding of white matter both in normal populations and in populations with brain disorders. Existing techniques focus primarily on using diffusivity-based quantities derived from diffusion tensor as surrogate measures of microstructural tissue properties of white matter. In this paper, we describe a novel tract-specific framework that enables the examination of white matter morphometry at both the macroscopic and microscopic scales. The framework leverages the skeleton-based modeling of sheet-like white matter fasciculi using the continuous medial representation, which gives a natural definition of thickness and supports its comparison across subjects. The thickness measure provides a macroscopic characterization of white matter fasciculi that complements existing analysis of microstructural features. The utility of the framework is demonstrated in quantifying white matter atrophy in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a severe neurodegenerative disease of motor neurons. We show that, compared to using microscopic features alone, combining the macroscopic and microscopic features gives a more complete characterization of the disease.

• 出版日期2010-10