SPLITTING TRACKING THROUGH CROSSING FIBERS: MULTIDIRECTIONAL Q-BALL TRACKING

We present a new tracking algorithm based on the full multidirectional information of the diffusion orientation distribution function (ODF) estimated from Q-ball imaging (QBI). From the ODF, we extract all available maxima and then extend streamline (STR) tracking to allow for splitting in multiple directions (SPLIT-STR). Our new algorithm SPLIT-STR overcomes important limitations of classical diffusion tensor streamline tracking in regions of low anisotropy and regions of fiber crossings. Not only can the tracking propagate through fiber crossings but it can also deal with fibers fanning and branching. SPLIT-STR algorithm is efficient and validated on synthetic data, on a biological phantom and compared against probabilistic tensor tracking on a human brain dataset with known crossing fibers.