Fiber rendering apparatus

A fiber rendering apparatus comprising:

• a device for defining tracking start points in three-dimensional image data collected by a diffusion tensor method in an MRI apparatus, wherein the tracking start points are generated by randomly displacing a plurality of grid points located in a region of interest based on a distribution function;
• a device for performing diffusion tensor analysis on each tracking start point in the three-dimensional image data to determine a direction of a principal axis vector and a diffusion anisotropy value;
• a device for tracking a fiber by repeatedly selecting a neighbor point along the direction of the principal axis vector and performing diffusion tensor analysis on the neighbor point to determine a direction of a principal axis vector and a diffusion anisotropy value;
• and
• a device for producing an image of the tracked fibers as viewed in a desired view direction and displaying the image with opacity reflecting the diffusion anisotropy values at the tracking start points and neighbor points.

A fiber rendering apparatus comprising:

• a device for defining tracking start points in three-dimensional image data collected by a diffusion tensor method in an MRI apparatus, wherein the tracking start points are generated by randomly displacing a plurality of grid points located in a region of interest based on a distribution function;
• a device for performing diffusion tensor analysis on each tracking start point in the three-dimensional image data to determine a direction of a principal axis vector and eigenvalues of a diffusion tensor;
• a device for tracking a fiber by repeatedly selecting a neighbor point along the direction of the principal axis vector and performing diffusion tensor analysis on the neighbor point to determine a direction of a principal axis vector and eigenvalues of a diffusion tensor;
• and
• a device for producing an image of the tracked fibers as viewed in a desired view direction and displaying the image with display colors reflecting the eigenvalues of the diffusion tensors at the tracking start points and neighbor points.