--- title: "DTI Data in fslr" output: rmarkdown::html_vignette vignette: > %\VignetteEngine{knitr::rmarkdown} %\VignetteIndexEntry{DTI Data in fslr} %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8} --- ```{r setup, include=FALSE} library(knitr) ``` # Resources and Goals Much of this work has been adapted by the FSL guide for DTI: [https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FDT/UserGuide](https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FDT/UserGuide). We will show you a few steps that have been implemented in `fslr`: `eddy_correct` and `dtifit`. Although `xfibres` has been adapted for `fslr`, which is the backend for `bedpostx` from FSL, it takes a long time to run and the results are not seen in this vignette, though code is given to illustrate how it would be run. # Data Location The data located in this tutorial is located at [http://camino.cs.ucl.ac.uk/uploads/Tutorials/example_dwi.zip](http://camino.cs.ucl.ac.uk/uploads/Tutorials/example_dwi.zip). It contains 3 files: 1. `4Ddwi_b1000.nii.gz` - a 4D image of the DWI data. 2. `brain_mask.nii.gz` - A brain mask of the DTI data 3. `grad_dirs.txt` - a 3 column text file with the b-vectors as the first 3 columns. The b-values are either 0 or 1000 depending on the b-vector. # Reading in the Data First, we download the data into a temporary directory the unzip it: ```{r} tdir = tempdir() tfile = file.path(tdir, "example_dwi.zip") result = try({download.file("http://camino.cs.ucl.ac.uk/uploads/Tutorials/example_dwi.zip",destfile = tfile, mode = "wb")}, silent = TRUE) if (inherits(result, "try-error")) { download.file("https://github.com/muschellij2/fslr/raw/master/inst/extdata/example_dwi.zip", destfile = tfile, mode = "wb") } out = unzip(zipfile = tfile, exdir = tdir, overwrite = TRUE) ``` ## Making b-vectors and b-values As `dtifit` requires the b-values and b-vectors to be separated, and this data has b-values of $1000$ when the b-vectors is not zero. **This is very important and you must know where your b-values and b-vectors are when doing your analyses and what units they are in.** ```{r bvecs} library(fslr) b_data_file = grep("[.]txt$", out, value = TRUE) b_vecs = read.delim2(b_data_file, header = FALSE) b_vecs = as.matrix(b_vecs) class(b_vecs) = "numeric" ``` We will read in the information of the b-values and b-vectors from the 1 file and separate them. Here, the b-values are all 1000, except for places where the b-vector is all zero. ```{r b_values} b_vals = rep(1000, nrow(b_vecs)) all_zero = apply(b_vecs == 0, 1, all) b_vals[all_zero] = 0 ``` ## Checking our data Here we ensure that the number of b-values/b-vectors is the same as the number of time points in the 4D image. ```{r check_img} img = grep("4Ddwi_b1000", out, value = TRUE) nim = readnii(img) n_timepoints = dim(nim)[4] stopifnot(nrow(b_vecs) == n_timepoints) ``` ## Printing out FSL Version ```{r} if (have.fsl()) { print(fsl_version()) } ``` # Running `eddy_correct` Here, we will run an eddy current correction using FSL's `eddy_correct` through `fslr`. We will save the result in a temporary file (`outfile`), but also return the result as a `nifti` object `ret`, as `retimg = TRUE`. We will use the first volume as the reference as is the default in FSL. *Note* FSL is zero-indexed so the first volume is the zero-ith index: ```{r} if (have.fsl()) { outfile = tempfile(fileext = ".nii.gz") ret = eddy_correct(infile = img, outfile = outfile, retimg = TRUE, reference_no = 0) } ``` Note, from here on forward we will use either the filename for the output of the eddy current correction or the eddy-current-corrected `nifti` object. # Running DTI Fitting as a cursor Now that we have eddy current corrected our data, we can pass that result into `dtifit` to get FA maps and such: ```{r dtifit} if (have.fsl()) { mask_fname = grep("mask", out, value = TRUE) res = dtifit(infile = ret, bvecs = b_vecs, bvals = b_vals, mask = mask_fname) } ``` By default, the result of `dtifit` is the filenames of the resultant images. Here we will read in those images: ```{r read_res} if (have.fsl()) { res_imgs = lapply(res, readnii) } ``` ## Plotting an FA map Using the `ortho2` function, you can plot the fractional anisotropy (FA) map ```{r} if (have.fsl()) { ortho2(res_imgs$FA) } ``` and the mean diffusivity (MD) map: ```{r} if (have.fsl()) { ortho2(res_imgs$MD) } ``` or both at the same time using the `double_ortho` function: ```{r} if (have.fsl()) { double_ortho(res_imgs$FA, res_imgs$MD) } ``` You can look at a scatterplot of the FA vs MD values of all values inside the mask using the following code: ```{r} if (have.fsl()) { mask = readnii(mask_fname) df = data.frame(FA = res_imgs$FA[ mask == 1], MD = res_imgs$MD[ mask == 1] ) plot(df) } ``` # Fitting bedpostx According to [https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FDT/UserGuide](https://fsl.fmrib.ox.ac.uk/fsl/fslwiki/FDT/UserGuide), the `bedpostx` function from FSL stands for "Bayesian Estimation of Diffusion Parameters Obtained using Sampling Techniques. The X stands for modelling Crossing Fibres". It also states "bedpostx takes about 15 hours to run". We have implemented `xfibres`, the function `bedpostx` calls. Running it with the default options, the command would be: ```{r, eval = FALSE} xfibres(infile = outfile, bvecs = b_vecs, bvals = b_vals, mask = mask_fname) ``` We are currently implementing `probtracx2` and an overall wrapper for all these functions to work as a pipeline.