Projects:DTIRicianNoiseRemoval

Objective: Provide a software tool for clinicians that will filter diffusion tensor images using our Rician noise removal algorithm. The method should be completely automatic and give the user the option of reviewing the images to make sure that the results are acceptable.

Progress: Developed a Slicer module for our DT-MRI Rician noise removal during the 2007 Project Half Week. Also enhanced the method by including an automatic method for determining the noise sigma in the image. This makes the algorithm completely automatic, i.e., there are no free parameters. Also, since the module is implemented in Slicer, images can be reviewed directly in the Slicer program after applying the filter.

References:

• Basu, S., Fletcher, P.T., Whitaker, R., "Rician Noise Removal in Diffusion Tensor MRI," presented at Medical Image Computing and Computer-Assisted Intervention, MICCAI 2006, LNCS 4190, pp. 117--125. PDF of paper

Key Investigators:

• Tom Fletcher, Saurav Basu, McKay Davis, Ross Whitaker (Utah).

Links:

4-block PPT from the Project Half Week (Jan 2007)

Coronal slice from a noisy DTI (left). The same slice after applying our Rician noise DTI filtering method (right).