Anisotropy creases delineate white matter structure in diffusion tensor MRI

Abstract

Current methods for extracting models of white matter architecture from diffusion tensor MRI are generally based on fiber tractography. For some purposes a compelling alternative may be found in analyzing the first and second derivatives of diffusion anisotropy. Anisotropy creases are ridges and valleys of locally extremal anisotropy, where the gradient of anisotropy is orthogonal to one or more eigenvectors of its Hessian. We propose that anisotropy creases provide a basis for extracting a skeleton of white matter pathways, in that ridges of anisotropy coincide with interiors of fiber tracts, and valleys of anisotropy coincide with the interfaces between adjacent but distinctly oriented tracts. We describe a crease extraction algorithm that generates high-quality polygonal models of crease surfaces, then demonstrate the method on a measured diffusion tensor dataset, and visualize the result in combination with tractography to confirm its anatomic relevance. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.