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Digital Processing of Diffusion-Tensor Images of Avascular Tissues

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Medical Image Processing

Part of the book series: Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering ((BIOMEDICAL))

Abstract

Diffusion is the process that leads to the mixing of substances as a result of spontaneous and random thermal motion of individual atoms and molecules. It was first detected by the English botanist Robert Brown in 1827, and the phenomenon became known as ‘Brownian motion’. More specifically, the motion observed by Brown was translational diffusion – thermal motion resulting in random variations of the position of a molecule. This type of motion was given a correct theoretical interpretation in 1905 by Albert Einstein, who derived the relationship between temperature, the viscosity of the medium, the size of the diffusing molecule, and its diffusion coefficient [1]. It is translational diffusion that is indirectly observed in MR diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI). The relationship obtained by Einstein provides the physical basis for using translational diffusion to probe the microscopic environment surrounding the molecule.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported under Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects funding scheme (project number DP0880346). We thank the University of Queensland node of the National Instrumentation Facility for access to the 16.4 T microMRI spectrometer and Dr Gary Cowin for assistance with data acquisition. We thank Mr Garth Brooks and Mrs Stacey Manson (Teys Bros Pty. Ltd., Beenleigh, Australia) for providing samples of bovine patellar cartilage. We thank Prof Ross Crawford for providing human cartilage samples and Mrs Sally de Visser for acquiring the DTI data sets used to generate Figs. 15.15–15.18.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Konstantin I. Momot, James M. Pope & R. Mark Wellard

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  1. Konstantin I. Momot
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Correspondence to Konstantin I. Momot .

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  1. , Applied Physics and Medical Imaging, California State University Channel Isla, One University Drive, Camarillo, 93012, USA

    Geoff Dougherty

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Momot, K.I., Pope, J.M., Wellard, R.M. (2011). Digital Processing of Diffusion-Tensor Images of Avascular Tissues. In: Dougherty, G. (eds) Medical Image Processing. Biological and Medical Physics, Biomedical Engineering. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9779-1_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9779-1_15

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