Trekker implements a state-of-the-art tractography algorithm, parallel transport tractography (PTT). PTT is capable of reconstructing geometrically smooth and topographically organized fiber bundles.
Trekker software has the following features:
- Clean probabilistic tractography with PTT.
- Pathway rules that offer flexible options to reconstruct intricate connections.
- Time limiting enables tracking for a given length of duration, specification of streamline count is optional.
- Multithreading reconstructs streamlines using multiple cores of a CPU.
- Support for asymmetric FODs provides a more flexible option for fiber tracking.
- Command line interface, an essential requirement to write scripts for processing big data in computer grids.
- Python package, wrapped using Cython from Trekker's C/C++ code which provides easy access to PTT algorithm for python lovers.
- .vtk output, that is compatible with a large number of third party 3D rendering software, for easy and high quality visualizations.
For complete documentation, tutorials and examples, visit https://dmritrekker.github.io/.
Example:
#Clean whole brain tractography with intuitive options
./trekker -fod FOD.nii.gz \
-seed_image WHITEMATTER.nii.gz \
-seed_count 100000 \
-pathway=discard_if_ends_inside WHITEMATTER.nii.gz \
-pathway=discard_if_enters CSF.nii.gz \
-minLength 20 \
-maxLength 300 \
-output OUTPUT.vtk
Stand-alone executables:
Latest binaries are under: https://github.com/baranaydogan/trekker/tree/master/binaries
Building from source:
Step 1. Download the source code:
git clone https://github.com/dmritrekker/trekker
Step 2. Modify the first few lines in the build script (make sure to have cmake-3.15 or newer):
- For Linux -> build_Linux.sh
- For Windows -> build_Windows.bat
Step 3. Run the build script. This will build Trekker under:
- For Linux -> /build/Linux/install
- For Windows -> /build/Windows/install
Python package:
A python package can be built from source. You can also download a built distributions (.whl) from the /binaries folder.
To install the python package use:
pip install Trekker-<VERSION>.whl
To test your installation, please use the scripts under -> /demo
If you use Trekker, please cite [Aydogan2021], which provides a detailed explanation of the algorithm and the results obtained from extensive experiments. A precursory abstract was initially published during ISMRM 2019, Montreal [Aydogan2019], which can additionally be cited:
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[Aydogan2021] Aydogan D.B., Shi Y., "Parallel transport tractography", in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 635-647, Feb. 2021, doi: 10.1109/TMI.2020.3034038.
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[Aydogan2019] Aydogan D.B., Shi Y., "A novel fiber tracking algorithm using parallel transport frames", Proceedings of the 27th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) 2019