GlymphVIS: Visualizing Glymphatic Transport Pathways Using Regularized Optimal Transport

Med Image Comput Comput Assist Interv. 2018 Sep:11070:844-852. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-00928-1_95. Epub 2018 Sep 26.

Abstract

The glymphatic system (GS) is a transit passage that facil-itates brain metabolic waste removal and its dysfunction has been asso-ciated with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. The GS has been studied by acquiring temporal contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences of a rodent brain, and tracking the cerebrospinal fluid injected contrast agent as it flows through the GS. We present here a novel visualization framework, GlymphVIS, which uses regularized optimal transport (OT) to study the flow behavior between time points at which the images are taken. Using this regularized OT app-roach, we can incorporate diffusion, handle noise, and accurately capture and visualize the time varying dynamics in GS transport. Moreover, we are able to reduce the registration mean-squared and infinity-norm error across time points by up to a factor of 5 as compared to the current state-of-the-art method. Our visualization pipeline yields flow patterns that align well with experts' current findings of the glymphatic system.

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Alzheimer Disease / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain* / diagnostic imaging
  • Contrast Media
  • Glymphatic System* / diagnostic imaging
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity

Substances

  • Contrast Media