title: Efficient and robust computation of PDF features from diffusion MR signal.
abstract: We present a method for the estimation of various features of the tissue micro-architecture using the diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. The considered features are designed from the displacement probability density function (PDF). The estimation is based on two steps: first the approximation of the signal by a series expansion made of Gaussian-Laguerre and Spherical Harmonics functions; followed by a projection on a finite dimensional space. Besides, we propose to tackle the problem of the robustness to Rician noise corrupting in-vivo acquisitions. Our feature estimation is expressed as a variational minimization process leading to a variational framework which is robust to noise. This approach is very flexible regarding the number of samples and enables the computation of a large set of various features of the local tissues structure. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the method with results on both synthetic phantom and real MR datasets acquired in a clinical time-frame.
authors: GREYC (CNRS UMR 6072), 6 Bd Maréchal Juin, 14050 Caen Cedex, France. assemlal@greyc.ensicaen.fr
authors: Haz-Edine
authors: HE
authors: Assemlal
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Tschumperlé
authors: Luc
authors: L
authors: Brun
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016008:Statistical Distributions