DiffusionKit: A light one-stop solution for diffusion MRI data analysis

- DiffusionKit has a full pipeline for (pre-)processing and visualization of diffusion MRI data.
- DiffusionKit has cross-platform support and a small installation size without 3rd party dependency.
- DiffusionKit has both a GUI interface and command-line functions that enable easy operation and batch processing.

BackgroundDiffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) techniques are receiving increasing attention due to their ability to characterize the arrangement map of white matter in vivo. However, the existing toolkits for dMRI analysis that have accompanied this surge possess noticeable limitations, such as large installation size, an incomplete pipeline, and a lack of cross-platform support.New methodIn this work, we developed a light, one-stop, cross-platform solution for dMRI data analysis, called DiffusionKit. It delivers a complete pipeline, including data format conversion, dMRI preprocessing, local reconstruction, white matter fiber tracking, fiber statistical analyses and various visualization schemes. Furthermore, DiffusionKit is a self-contained executable toolkit, without the need to install any other software.ResultsThe DiffusionKit package is implemented in C/C++ and Qt/VTK, is freely available at http://diffusion.brainnetome.org and https://www.nitrc.org/projects/diffusionkit. The website of DiffusionKit includes test data, a complete tutorial and a series of tutorial examples. A mailing list has also been established for update notification and questions and answers.Comparison with existing methodsDiffusionKit provides a full-function pipeline for dMRI data analysis, including data processing, modeling and visualization. Additionally, it provides both a graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line functions, which are helpful for batch processing. The standalone installation package has a small size and cross-platform support.ConclusionsDiffusionKit provides a complete pipeline with cutting-edge methods for dMRI data analysis, including both a GUI interface and command-line functions. The rich functions for both data analysis and visualization will facilitate and benefit dMRI research.