SpinDoctor: a Matlab toolbox for diffusion MRI simulationShow others and affiliations
2019 (English)In: NeuroImage, ISSN 1053-8119, E-ISSN 1095-9572, ISSN 1053-8119, Vol. 202, article id 116120Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
The complex transverse water proton magnetization subject to diffusion-encoding magnetic field gradient pulses in a heterogeneous medium can be modeled by the multiple compartment Bloch-Torrey partial differential equation (BTPDE). A mathematical model for the time-dependent apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), called the H-ADC model, was obtained recently using homogenization techniques on the BTPDE. Under the assumption of negligible water exchange between compartments, the H-ADC model produces the ADC of a diffusion medium from the solution of a diffusion equation (DE) subject to a time-dependent Neumann boundary condition. This paper describes a publicly available Matlab toolbox called SpinDoctor that can be used 1) to solve the BTPDE to obtain the dMRI signal (the toolbox provides a way of robustly fitting the dMRI signal to obtain the fitted ADC); 2) to solve the DE of the H-ADC model to obtain the ADC; 3) a short-time approximation formula for the ADC is also included in the toolbox for comparison with the simulated ADC. The PDEs are solved by P 1 finite elements combined with built-in Matlab routines for solving ordinary differential equations. The finite element mesh generation is performed using an external package called Tetgen that is included in the toolbox. SpinDoctor provides built-in options of including 1) spherical cells with a nucleus; 2) cylindrical cells with a myelin layer; 3) an extra-cellular space (ECS) enclosed either a) in a box or b) in a tight wrapping around the cells; 4) deformation of canonical cells by bending and twisting. 5) permeable membranes for the BT-PDE (the H-ADC assumes negligible permeability). Built-in diffusion-encoding pulse sequences include the Pulsed Gradient Spin Echo and the Oscillating Gradient Spin Echo.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2019. Vol. 202, article id 116120
Keywords [en]
Bloch-Torrey equation, diffusion magnetic resonance imaging, finite elements, simulation, apparent diffusion coefficient.
National Category
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Medical Imaging
Research subject
Applied and Computational Mathematics; Applied Medical Technology; Computer Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-243290DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116120ISI: 000491861000094PubMedID: 31470126Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85071780835OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-243290DiVA, id: diva2:1285723
Note
QC 20190304
2019-02-052019-02-052022-06-26Bibliographically approved