DT-REFinD, Diffusion Tensor Registration with Exact Finite Strain Differential



Diffusion Tensor Registration with Exact Finite Strain Differential (DT-REFIND) is an algorithm that registers diffusion tensor images using full tensor information. Deforming tensor images require us to interpolate AND reorient the tensors in order to be consistent with anatomy. Unfortunately, this reorientation process introduces difficulty in computing the gradient of the objective function.

We propose an algorithm for the diffeomorphic registration of diffusion tensor images (DTI). Previous DTI registration algorithms using full tensor information suffer from difficulties in computing the differential of the Finite Strain tensor reorientation strategy. We borrow results from computer vision to derive an analytical gradient of the objective function. By leveraging on the closed-form gradient and the one-parameter subgroups of diffeomorphisms, the resulting registration algorithm is diffeomorphic and fast. Registration of a pair of 128 × 128 × 60 diffusion tensor volumes takes 15 minutes. We contrast the algorithm with a classic alternative that does not take into account the reorientation in the gradient computation. We show with 40 pairwise DTI registrations that using the exact gradient achieves significantly better registration.



More information on this website.

References

  1. Boon Thye Thomas Yeo, Tom Vercauteren, Pierre Fillard, Jean-Marc Peyrat, Xavier Pennec, Polina Golland, Nicholas Ayache, and Olivier Clatz. DT-REFinD: Diffusion Tensor Registration with Exact Finite-Strain Differential. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 28(12):1914-1928, December 2009.


Qualitative results



* DTI data courtesy of Denis Ducreux, MD, Bicêtre Hospital, Paris, France
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