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Magnetic Resonance Imaging Method For Estimating Cone Of Uncertainty

Background:
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), Section on Tissue Biophysics and Biomimetics, is seeking statements of capability or interest from parties interested in collaborative research to further develop, evaluate, or commercialize magnetic resonance imaging techniques.

Technology:
Diffusion tensor MRI imaging can be used to determine and display the fiber tracts of nerves in the brain. But, since the direction of the tracts cannot be known precisely a method of calculating and displaying the statistical uncertainty of the determined fiber tract is needed. Prior methods have been directed to computation and visualization of a circular cone of uncertainty, but the methods were limited in their usefulness.

The current invention is an improved method of calculating the cone of uncertainty. The method consists of (1) a reconstruction procedure to construct the covariance matrix of a major eigenvector for each voxel of a region of interest of a subject; (2) a visualization technique to visualize the elliptical cone of uncertainty of the eigenvector; and (3) two reconstruction procedures to compute the normalized areal and circumferential measures of the elliptical cone of uncertainty. This method allows the diagnoses of medical disorders usually associated with the anomalous changes in water diffusion. The methods can also be used in applications in material science and earth science (geomagnetism).

Further R&D Needed:

• Identify the applicability of these measures in understanding pathological tissues in the brain

• Ability to diagnose medical disorders despite the anomalous changes in water diffusion

• Potential applications in material and earth science (geomagnetism)