Proceedings Article | 9 May 2002
KEYWORDS: Image segmentation, Tissues, Brain, Magnetic resonance imaging, Cerebrum, Head, Image processing algorithms and systems, Image processing, Statistical analysis, Neurons
In this study, subsets of MR slices were examined to assess their ability to optimally predict the total cerebral volume of gray matter, white matter and CSF. Patients underwent a clinical imaging protocol consisting of T1-, T2-, PD-, and FLAIR-weighted images after obtaining informed consent. MR imaging sets were registered, RF-corrected, and then analyzed with a hybrid neural network segmentation and classification algorithm to identify normal brain parenchyma. After processing the data, the correlation between the image subsets and the total cerebral volumes of gray matter, white matter and CSF were examined. The 29 subjects (18F, 11M) assessed in this study were 1.7 ? 18.7 (median = 5.2) years of age. The five subsets accounted for 5%, 15%, 24%, 56%, and 79% of the total cerebral volume. The predictive correlation for gray matter, white matter, and CSF in each of these subsets were: 5% (R= 0.94, 0.92, 0.91), 15% (R= 0.93, 0.95, 0.94), 24% (R= 0.92, 0.95, 0.94), 56% (R= 0.75, 0.95, 0.89), and 79% (R= 0.89, 0.98, 0.99) respectively. All subsets of slices examined were significantly correlated (p<0.001) with the total cerebral volume of gray matter, white matter, and CSF.