Diffusion-Relaxation Suite

A Toolkit for Multicomponent Modeling of High-Dimensional Multiparametric MRI Data

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MRI generates images with millimeter-scale spatial resolution, while many important biological features occur at much smaller (microscopic) scales. Over the past several decades, MRI practitioners have used the information derived from biophysical parameters (like relaxation and diffusion) to indirectly probe microscopic tissue compartments using millimeter-scale data. While these approaches have been somewhat successful, an innovative new paradigm has emerged in recent years that leverages multiparametric MRI data (e.g., using relaxation and diffusion jointly in a higher-dimensional experiment) to probe tissue microstructure with an unprecedented level of detail.

Diffusion-Relaxation Suite is an open-source software package that provides novel analysis methods to identify and separate multiple microstructural tissue compartments from MRI data using advanced constrained estimation techniques. These form the central component of an end-to-end image preprocessing pipeline that includes steps for registration and visualization. This package is especially designed for multiparametric acquisitions and provides novel tools to evaluate estimation quality and to optimize multiparametric acquisition protocols.

We have implemented these approaches into an easy-to-use software package, which provides the broader imaging community with easy access to these powerful approaches.

Features

Team

Justin Haldar (PI), Debdut Mandal, Anand Joshi, and David Shattuck.

Acknowledgements

This project is supported in part by NIH Grant R56-EB034349.

Licenses

GPLv2-only for most code.