Alexander B. Pine1, Stephen Jones2, Mark Lowe2, Ken Sakaie3, Micheal Philips2
1Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Cleveland , OH, USA; 2Radiology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA; 3Department of Radiology, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, OH, USA
Deterministic fiber-tracking methods are poorly suited to track through regions of low anisotropy such as MS lesions. In contrast, probabilistic tracking, when combined with non-tensor fiber orientation distribution estimation methods, can avoid such pitfalls. It is hypothesized that methods utilizing probabilistic tracking are capable of propagating tracks through such isotropic anomalies as MS lesions. This study specifically aimed to validate probabilistic tracking as a reliable tool that allows fiber tracing to propagate through MS lesions. Additionally, driven by the overall goal to characterize white matter integrity in MS patients, this work has begun applying this method to quantitatively evaluate diffusion parameters of fiber tracks that traverse MS lesions.