Zhixi Li1, Robert J. Young2,3,
Kyung Peck4, Nicole Brennan2,
1Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons, New York, United States; 2Department of
Radiology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United States; 3Brain
Tumor Center, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, United
States; 4Department of Medical Physics, Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, New York, United States
The
development of diffusion tensor (DT) imaging and tractography affords the
ability to account for the white matter fibers and has the potential to be an
important tool in neurosurgical navigation. In addition to the usual fiber
tracking challenges related to small fibers that may make sharp turns and/or
encounter crossing fibers, tractography in patients with brain tumors may be
compromised by the tumor and/or the associated edema. In patients with brain
tumors near the arcuate fasciculus, we hypothesize that tractography based on
a probabilistic model will perform better than a standard deterministic
model.