Streamline visualization of diffusion tensor data based on triangle strips

Abstract

For the visualization of diffusion tensor imaging data, different approaches have been presented such as scalar metrics, glyphs or streamlines. Thereby, streamline techniques commonly referred to as fiber tracking provide a comprehensive and intuitive representation. For this reason, they are preferably applied for preoperative planning. The visualization of streamlines is solved by rendering lines or tubes to achieve even more significant results. However, the number of streamlines for a tracking of the whole brain or very dense tract systems may be immense, making a mesh-based tube visualization inefficient. To overcome this problem, we developed an alternative visualization technique for tubes by using textured triangle strips.