title: Quantitative assessment of DTI-based muscle fiber tracking and optimal tracking parameters.
abstract: Diffusion tensor imaging-based fiber tracking in skeletal muscle has been used to reconstruct and quantify muscle architecture. In addition, the consistent pattern of muscle fiber geometry enables a quantitative assessment of the fiber tracking. This work describes a method to determine the accuracy of individual muscle fiber tracts based on the location at which the fibers terminate, the fiber path, and similarity to the neighboring fibers. In addition, the effect of different stop criteria settings on this quantitative assessment was investigated. Fiber tracking was performed on the tibialis anterior muscle of nine healthy subjects. Complete fiber tracts covered 89.4 +/- 9.6% and 75.0 +/- 15.2% of the aponeurosis area in the superficial and deep compartments, respectively. Applications of the method include the exclusion of erroneous fiber-tracking results, quantitative assessment of data set quality, and the assessment of fiber-tracking stop criteria.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37232-2310, USA. a.m.heemskerk@vanderbilt.edu
authors.forename: Anneriet M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Heemskerk
authors.forename: Tuhin K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: Kevin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Zhaohua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Bruce M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Damon
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D018485:Muscle Fibers, Skeletal / Q000166:cytology*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity