Noise removal in magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging.pdfVIP

Noise Removal in Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Tensor Imaging Bin Chen1 and Edward W. Hsu1,2* Although promising for visualizing the structure of ordered tis- sues, MR diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has been hampered by long acquisition time and low spatial resolution associated with its inherently low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Moreover, the uncertainty in the DTI measurements has a direct impact on the accuracy of structural renderings such as fiber streamline tracking. Noise removal techniques can be used to improve the SNR of DTI without requiring additional acquisitions, albeit most low-pass filtering methods are accompanied by undesir- able image blurring. In the present study, a modified vector- based partial-differential-equation (PDE) filtering formalism was implemented for smoothing DTI vector fields. Using an image residual-energy criterion to equate the degree of smoothing and error metrics empirically derived from DTI data to quantify the relative performances, the effectiveness in de- noising DTI data is compared among image-based and vector- based PDE and fixed and adaptive low-pass k-space filtering. The results demonstrate that the edge-preservation feature of the PDE approach can be highly advantageous in enhancing DTI measurements, particularly for vector-based PDE filtering in applications relying on DTI directional information. These findings suggest a potential role for the postprocessing en- hancement technique to improve the practical utility of DTI. Magn Reson Med 54:393–407, 2005. ? 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Key words: diffusion tensor imaging; noise removal; PDE filter- ing; mouse brain; white matter structure Magnetic resonance diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) (1) is sensitive to the anisotropic diffusion of water exerted by its macromolecular environment and has been shown use- ful in characterizing structures of ordered tissues such as the brain white matter (2,3), myocardium (4,5), and carti- lage (6). The principles of DTI involve the acqu