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A Comparison of Skeletal Muscle Diffusion Tensor Imaging Tractography Seeding Methods.
Bruce M Damon1,2,3,4,5,6, Roberto Pineda Guzman1, Carly A Lockard1
1Carle Clinical Imaging Research Program, Stephens Family Clinical Research Institute, Carle Health, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
NMR in Biomedicine
|October 16, 2025
Summary
This study compares three seeding methods for muscle fiber tractography using diffusion tensor imaging. Voxel-based seeding offers a robust, efficient alternative to boundary-based methods for analyzing muscle architecture.
Area of Science:
- Biomechanics
- Medical Imaging
- Musculoskeletal System
Background:
- Muscle architecture significantly influences muscle function.
- Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-based tractography is used to quantify muscle architecture.
- Previous studies show tractography is sensitive to seed point selection methods.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the sensitivity of DTI tractography outcomes to different seed point selection methods in skeletal muscle.
- To compare aponeurosis boundary (APO), voxel-based (VXL), and edge (EDGE) seeding strategies.
- To assess the accuracy, robustness, and efficiency of these seeding methods.
Main Methods:
- Developed a simulated muscle architecture for method testing.
- Implemented and compared APO, VXL, and EDGE seeding methods.
- Applied methods to human skeletal muscle DTI datasets.
Main Results:
- Updated APO seeding improved tract propagation accuracy and robustness.
- VXL seeding methods produced quantification outcomes comparable to updated APO seeding.
- VXL methods demonstrated potential for accelerated workflows in high-throughput analysis.
Conclusions:
- Voxel-based seeding provides a reliable and efficient alternative for muscle architecture analysis using DTI tractography.
- The VXL method may be advantageous for analyzing large multi-muscle datasets.
- Further validation across diverse muscle architectures is recommended.
