title: UNC-Utah NA-MIC framework for DTI fiber tract analysis.
abstract: Diffusion tensor imaging has become an important modality in the field of neuroimaging to capture changes in micro-organization and to assess white matter integrity or development. While there exists a number of tractography toolsets, these usually lack tools for preprocessing or to analyze diffusion properties along the fiber tracts. Currently, the field is in critical need of a coherent end-to-end toolset for performing an along-fiber tract analysis, accessible to non-technical neuroimaging researchers. The UNC-Utah NA-MIC DTI framework represents a coherent, open source, end-to-end toolset for atlas fiber tract based DTI analysis encompassing DICOM data conversion, quality control, atlas building, fiber tractography, fiber parameterization, and statistical analysis of diffusion properties. Most steps utilize graphical user interfaces (GUI) to simplify interaction and provide an extensive DTI analysis framework for non-technical researchers/investigators. We illustrate the use of our framework on a small sample, cross sectional neuroimaging study of eight healthy 1-year-old children from the Infant Brain Imaging Study (IBIS) Network. In this limited test study, we illustrate the power of our method by quantifying the diffusion properties at 1 year of age on the genu and splenium fiber tracts.
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Audrey R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Verde
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Francois
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Budin
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Jean-Baptiste
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Berger
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA ; Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Aditya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Mahshid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Farzinfar
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Adrien
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaiser
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Mihye
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ahn
authors.affiliation: Iowa Institute for Biomedical Imaging, University of Iowa Iowa City, IA, USA.
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Iowa Institute for Biomedical Imaging, University of Iowa Iowa City, IA, USA.
authors.forename: Joy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Matsui
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Heather C
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hazlett
authors.affiliation: Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Anuja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Kitware Inc. Clifton Park, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Casey
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Goodlett
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Yundi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gouttard
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA ; Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Clement
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vachet
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Piven
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Hongtu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gerig
authors.affiliation: Neuro Image Research and Analysis Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA ; Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Styner
keywords: DTI atlas building; diffusion imaging quality control; diffusion tensor imaging; magnetic resonance imaging; neonatal neuroimaging; white matter pathways