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01-01-2019 | Review

Automatic Removal of False Connections in Diffusion MRI Tractography Using Topology-Informed Pruning (TIP)

Authors: Fang-Cheng Yeh, Sandip Panesar, Jessica Barrios, David Fernandes, Kumar Abhinav, Antonio Meola, Juan C. Fernandez-Miranda

Published in: Neurotherapeutics | Issue 1/2019

Abstract

Diffusion MRI fiber tracking provides a non-invasive method for mapping the trajectories of human brain connections, but its false connection problem has been a major challenge. This study introduces topology-informed pruning (TIP), a method that automatically identifies singular tracts and eliminates them to improve the tracking accuracy. The accuracy of the tractography with and without TIP was evaluated by a team of 6 neuroanatomists in a blinded setting to examine whether TIP could improve the accuracy. The results showed that TIP improved the tracking accuracy by 11.93% in the single-shell scheme and by 3.47% in the grid scheme. The improvement is significantly different from a random pruning (p value < 0.001). The diagnostic agreement between TIP and neuroanatomists was comparable to the agreement between neuroanatomists. The proposed TIP algorithm can be used to automatically clean-up noisy fibers in deterministic tractography, with a potential to confirm the existence of a fiber connection in basic neuroanatomical studies or clinical neurosurgical planning.

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Title: Automatic Removal of False Connections in Diffusion MRI Tractography Using Topology-Informed Pruning (TIP)
Authors: Fang-Cheng Yeh
Sandip Panesar
Jessica Barrios
David Fernandes
Kumar Abhinav
Antonio Meola
Juan C. Fernandez-Miranda
Publication date: 01-01-2019
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Published in: Neurotherapeutics / Issue 1/2019
Print ISSN: 1933-7213
Electronic ISSN: 1878-7479
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13311-018-0663-y

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Automatic Removal of False Connections in Diffusion MRI Tractography Using Topology-Informed Pruning (TIP)

Abstract

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Abstract

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