论文标题

变压器神经网络的扩散张量估计

Diffusion Tensor Estimation with Transformer Neural Networks

论文作者

Karimi, Davood, Gholipour, Ali

论文摘要

扩散张量成像(DTI)是一种用于研究脑白质发育和变性的广泛使用的方法。但是,标准DTI估计方法取决于大量高质量测量。这将需要长时间的扫描时间,并且在某些患者人群(例如新生儿)中可能很难实现。在这里,我们提出了一种可以准确估算仅从六个扩散加权测量值的扩散张量的方法。我们的方法通过学习利用相邻体素中的扩散信号和张量之间的关系来实现这一目标。我们的模型基于变压器网络,该网络代表了在序列中建模信号之间关系时的最新技术。特别是,我们的模型由两个这样的网络组成。第一个网络根据体素邻域中的扩散信号估算扩散张量。第二个网络通过学习扩散信号之间的关系以及相邻体素中第一个网络估计的张量,提供了更准确的张量估计。我们使用三个数据集的实验表明,我们提出的方法可以实现对扩散张量的高度准确估计,并且比三种竞争方法明显优于。我们的方法用六个扩散加权测量产生的估计与具有30-88扩散加权测量值的标准估计方法相当。因此,我们的方法有望较短的扫描时间和对脑白质的更可靠评估,尤其是在新生儿和婴儿等非合作患者中。

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a widely used method for studying brain white matter development and degeneration. However, standard DTI estimation methods depend on a large number of high-quality measurements. This would require long scan times and can be particularly difficult to achieve with certain patient populations such as neonates. Here, we propose a method that can accurately estimate the diffusion tensor from only six diffusion-weighted measurements. Our method achieves this by learning to exploit the relationships between the diffusion signals and tensors in neighboring voxels. Our model is based on transformer networks, which represent the state of the art in modeling the relationship between signals in a sequence. In particular, our model consists of two such networks. The first network estimates the diffusion tensor based on the diffusion signals in a neighborhood of voxels. The second network provides more accurate tensor estimations by learning the relationships between the diffusion signals as well as the tensors estimated by the first network in neighboring voxels. Our experiments with three datasets show that our proposed method achieves highly accurate estimations of the diffusion tensor and is significantly superior to three competing methods. Estimations produced by our method with six diffusion-weighted measurements are comparable with those of standard estimation methods with 30-88 diffusion-weighted measurements. Hence, our method promises shorter scan times and more reliable assessment of brain white matter, particularly in non-cooperative patients such as neonates and infants.

扫码加入交流群

加入微信交流群

微信交流群二维码

扫码加入学术交流群,获取更多资源