Techniques for iterative reconstruction of magnetic resonance diffusion images from motion corrected multi-planar acquisitions are beginning to allow the use of more complex diffusion models and tractography techniques to study early brain connectivity. Many techniques have been developed for adult and neonatal brain tractography from diffusion images. However, fundamental differences in the underlying tissues, signal levels and relative spatial resolution that are available in fetal studies mean these techniques may need to be significantly adapted to deal with the different challenges. Here we evaluate and compare the use of diffusion tensor and spherical harmonic models in extracting known fetal white matter connective anatomy from multi-planar, motion corrected, variable data density studies of normally developing human fetal brains. Visual evaluation of known tracts indicates that, although there are significant differences in the diffusion properties of fetal brain tracts and also image signal strength in fetal brain studies, when compared to adult brain imaging and tractography, high order models such as spherical harmonic techniques still offer advantages in appropriately delineating known anatomy from in utero data.
The aim of this study was to examine the use of R2* mapping in maternal and fetal sub-regions of the placenta with the aim of providing a reference for blood oxygenation levels during normative development. There have been a number of MR relaxation studies of placental tissues in-utero, but none have reported R2* value changes with age, or examined differences in sub-regions of the placenta. Here specialized long-duration Multi-frame R2* imaging was used to create a stable estimate for R2* values in different placental regions in healthy pregnant volunteers not imaged for clinical reasons. 27 subjects were recruited and scanned up to 3 times during their pregnancy. A multi-slice dual echo EPI based BOLD acquisition was employed and repeated between 90 and 150 times over 3 to 5 minutes to provide a high accuracy estimate of the R2* signal level. Acquisitions were also repeated in 13 cases within a visit to evaluate reproducibility of the method in a given subject. Experimental results showed R2* measurements were highly repeatable within a visit with standard deviation of (0.76). Plots of all visits against gestational age indicated clear correlations showing decreases in R2* with age. This increase was consistent was also consistent over time in multiple visits of the same volunteer during their pregnancy. Maternal and fetal regional changes with gestational age followed the same trend with increase in R2* over the gestational age.
Understanding when and how resting state brain functional activity begins in the human brain is an increasing area of interest in both basic neuroscience and in the clinical evaluation of the brain during pregnancy and after premature birth. Although fMRI studies have been carried out on pregnant women since the 1990's, reliable mapping of brain function in utero is an extremely challenging problem due to the unconstrained fetal head motion. Recent studies have employed scrubbing to exclude parts of the time series and whole subjects from studies in order to control the confounds of motion. Fundamentally, even after correction of the location of signals due to motion, signal intensity variations are a fundamental limitation, due to coil sensitivity and spin history effects. An alternative technique is to use a more parametric MRI signal derived from multiple echoes that provides a level of independence from basic MRI signal variation. Here we examine the use of R2* mapping combined with slice based multi echo geometric distortion correction for in-utero studies. The challenges for R2* mapping arise from the relatively low signal strength of in-utero data. In this paper we focus on comparing activation detection in-utero using T2W and R2* approaches. We make use a subset of studies with relatively limited motion to compare the activation patterns without the additional confound of significant motion. Results at different gestational ages indicate comparable agreement in many activation patterns when limited motion is present, and the detection of some additional networks in the R2* data, not seen in the T2W results.
One of the most common approaches to MRI brain tissue segmentation is to employ an atlas prior to initialize an Expectation- Maximization (EM) image labeling scheme using a statistical model of MRI intensities. This prior is commonly derived from a set of manually segmented training data from the population of interest. However, in cases where subject anatomy varies significantly from the prior anatomical average model (for example in the case where extreme developmental abnormalities or brain injuries occur), the prior tissue map does not provide adequate information about the observed MRI intensities to ensure the EM algorithm converges to an anatomically accurate labeling of the MRI. In this paper, we present a novel approach for automatic segmentation of such cases. This approach augments the atlas-based EM segmentation by exploring methods to build a hybrid tissue segmentation scheme that seeks to learn where an atlas prior fails (due to inadequate representation of anatomical variation in the statistical atlas) and utilize an alternative prior derived from a patch driven search of the atlas data. We describe a framework for incorporating this patch-based augmentation of EM (PBAEM) into a 4D age-specific atlas-based segmentation of developing brain anatomy. The proposed approach was evaluated on a set of MRI brain scans of premature neonates with ages ranging from 27.29 to 46.43 gestational weeks (GWs). Results indicated superior performance compared to the conventional atlas-based segmentation method, providing improved segmentation accuracy for gray matter, white matter, ventricles and sulcal CSF regions.
KEYWORDS: Motion estimation, Magnetic resonance imaging, 3D image processing, 3D image reconstruction, 3D acquisition, Head, 3D modeling, Reconstruction algorithms, Medical imaging, Fetus
We describe a free software tool which combines a set of algorithms that provide a framework for building 3D
volumetric images of regions of moving anatomy using multiple fast multi-slice MRI studies. It is specifically
motivated by the clinical application of unsedated fetal brain imaging, which has emerged as an important area
for image analysis. The tool reads multiple DICOM image stacks acquired in any angulation into a consistent
patient coordinate frame and allows the user to select regions to be locally motion corrected. It combines
algorithms for slice motion estimation, bias field inconsistency correction and 3D volume reconstruction from
multiple scattered slice stacks. The tool is built onto the RView (http://rview.colin-studholme.net) medical
image display software and allows the user to inspect slice stacks, and apply both stack and slice level motion
estimation that incorporates temporal constraints based on slice timing and interleave information read from
the DICOM data. Following motion estimation an algorithm for bias field inconsistency correction provides the
user with the ability to remove artifacts arising from the motion of the local anatomy relative to the imaging
coils. Full 3D visualization of the slice stacks and individual slice orientations is provided to assist in evaluating
the quality of the motion correction and final image reconstruction. The tool has been evaluated on a range of
clinical data acquired on GE, Siemens and Philips MRI scanners.
Understanding human brain development in utero and detecting cortical abnormalities related to specific clinical
conditions is an important area of research. In this paper, we describe and evaluate methodology for detection and
mapping of delays in early cortical folding from population-based studies of fetal brain anatomies imaged in utero.
We use a general linear modeling framework to describe spatiotemporal changes in curvature of the developing
brain and explore the ability to detect and localize delays in cortical folding in the presence of uncertainty
in estimation of the fetal age. We apply permutation testing to examine which regions of the brain surface
provide the most statistical power to detect a given folding delay at a given developmental stage. The presented
methodology is evaluated using MR scans of fetuses with normal brain development and gestational ages ranging
from 20.57 to 27.86 weeks. This period is critical in early cortical folding and the formation of the primary and
secondary sulci. Finally, we demonstrate a clinical application of the framework for detection and localization of
folding delays in fetuses with isolated mild ventriculomegaly.
Recent studies reported the development of methods for rigid registration of 2D fetal brain imaging data to
correct for unconstrained fetal and maternal motion, and allow the formation of a true 3D image of conventional
fetal brain anatomy from conventional MRI. Diffusion tensor imaging provides additional valuable insight into
the developing brain anatomy, however the correction of motion artifacts in clinical fetal diffusion imaging is
still a challenging problem. This is due to the challenging problem of matching lower signal-to-noise ratio
diffusion weighted EPI slice data to recover between-slice motion, compounded by the presence of possible
geometric distortions in the EPI data. In addition, the problem of estimating a diffusion model (such as a
tensor) on a regular grid that takes into account the inconsistent spatial and orientation sampling of the diffusion
measurements needs to be solved in a robust way. Previous methods have used slice to volume registration within
the diffusion dataset. In this work, we describe an alternative approach that makes use of an alignment of diffusion
weighted EPI slices to a conventional structural MRI scan which provides a geometrically correct reference image.
After spatial realignment of each diffusion slice, a tensor field representing the diffusion profile is estimated by
weighted least squared fitting. By qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the results, we confirm the proposed
algorithm successfully corrects the motion and reconstructs the diffusion tensor field.
Recent advances in MR and image analysis allow for reconstruction of high-resolution 3D images from clinical
in utero scans of the human fetal brain. Automated segmentation of tissue types from MR images (MRI) is
a key step in the quantitative analysis of brain development. Conventional atlas-based methods for adult brain
segmentation are limited in their ability to accurately delineate complex structures of developing tissues from
fetal MRI. In this paper, we formulate a novel geometric representation of the fetal brain aimed at capturing the
laminar structure of developing anatomy. The proposed model uses a depth-based encoding of tissue occurrence
within the fetal brain and provides an additional anatomical constraint in a form of a laminar prior that can
be incorporated into conventional atlas-based EM segmentation. Validation experiments are performed using
clinical in utero scans of 5 fetal subjects at gestational ages ranging from 20.5 to 22.5 weeks. Experimental
results are evaluated against reference manual segmentations and quantified in terms of Dice similarity coefficient
(DSC). The study demonstrates that the use of laminar depth-encoded tissue priors improves both the overall
accuracy and precision of fetal brain segmentation. Particular refinement is observed in regions of the parietal
and occipital lobes where the DSC index is improved from 0.81 to 0.82 for cortical grey matter, from 0.71 to
0.73 for the germinal matrix, and from 0.81 to 0.87 for white matter.
Whole-brain morphometry denotes a group of methods with the aim of relating clinical and cognitive measurements
to regions of the brain. Typically, such methods require the statistical analysis of a data set with
many variables (voxels and exogenous variables) paired with few observations (subjects). A common approach
to this ill-posed problem is to analyze each spatial variable separately, dividing the analysis into manageable
subproblems. A disadvantage of this method is that the correlation structure of the spatial variables is not taken
into account. This paper investigates the use of ridge regression to address this issue, allowing for a gradual
introduction of correlation information into the model. We make the connections between ridge regression and
voxel-wise procedures explicit and discuss relations to other statistical methods. Results are given on an in-vivo
data set of deformation based morphometry from a study of cognitive decline in an elderly population.
KEYWORDS: Bone, Image registration, Magnetic resonance imaging, Image resolution, 3D image processing, Image analysis, Image segmentation, Medical imaging, Image processing, In vivo imaging
This study investigated the feasibility of automatic image registration of MR high-spatial resolution proximal femur
trabecular bone images as well as the effects of gray-level interpolation and volume of interest (VOI) misalignment on
MR-derived trabecular bone structure parameters. For six subjects, a baseline scan and a follow-up scan of the proximal
femur were acquired on the same day. An automatic image registration technique, based on mutual information, utilized
a baseline and a follow-up scan to compute transform parameters that aligned the two images. These parameters were
subsequently used to transform the follow-up image with three different gray-level interpolators. Nearest neighbor
interpolation and b-spline approximation did not significantly alter bone parameters, while linear interpolation
significantly modified bone parameters (p<0.01). Improvement in image alignment due to the automatic registration was
determined by visually inspecting difference images and 3D renderings. This work demonstrates the first application of
automatic registration, without prior segmentation, of high-spatial resolution trabecular bone MR images of the proximal
femur. Additionally, effects due to imprecise analysis volume alignment are investigated. Inherent heterogeneity in
trabecular bone structure and imprecise positioning of the VOI along the slice (A/P) direction resulted in significant
changes in bone parameters (p<0.01). Results suggest that automatic mutual information registration using nearest-neighbor
gray-level interpolation to transform the final image ensures VOI alignment between baseline and follow-up
images and does not compromise the integrity of MR-derived trabecular bone parameters.
MRI at high magnetic fields (> 3.0 T) is complicated by strong inhomogeneous radio-frequency fields, sometimes
termed the "bias field". These lead to nonuniformity of image intensity, greatly complicating further analysis
such as registration and segmentation. Existing methods for bias field correction are effective for 1.5 T or
3.0 T MRI, but are not completely satisfactory for higher field data. This paper develops an effective bias field
correction for high field MRI based on the assumption that the nonuniformity is smoothly varying in space. Also,
nonuniformity is quantified and unmixed using high order neighborhood statistics of intensity cooccurrences.
They are computed within spherical windows of limited size over the entire image. The restoration is iterative
and makes use of a novel stable stopping criterion that depends on the scaled entropy of the cooccurrence
statistics, which is a non monotonic function of the iterations; the Shannon entropy of the cooccurrence statistics
normalized to the effective dynamic range of the image. The algorithm restores whole head data, is robust to
intense nonuniformities present in high field acquisitions, and is robust to variations in anatomy. This algorithm
significantly improves bias field correction in comparison to N3 on phantom 1.5 T head data and high field 4 T
human head data.
KEYWORDS: Brain, Interfaces, 3D metrology, 3D image processing, Neuroimaging, Magnetic resonance imaging, Binary data, In vivo imaging, Convolution, 3D acquisition
In this work we compare 3D Gyrification Index and our recently proposed area-independent curvature-based
surface measures [26] for the in-vivo quantification of brain surface folding in clinically acquired neonatal MR
image data. A meaningful comparison of gyrification across brains of different sizes and their subregions will only
be possible through the quantification of folding with measures that are independent of the area of the region of
analysis. This work uses a 3D implementation of the classical Gyrification Index, a 2D measure that quantifies
folding based on the ratio of the inner and outer contours of the brain and which has been used to study gyral
patterns in adults with schizophrenia, among other conditions. The new surface curvature-based measures and
the 3D Gyrification Index were calculated on twelve premature infants (age 28-37 weeks) from which surfaces of
cerebrospinal fluid/gray matter (CSF/GM) interface and gray matter/white matter (GM/WM) interface were
extracted. Experimental results show that our measures better quantify folding on the CSF/GM interface than
Gyrification Index, and perform similarly on the GM/WM interface.
KEYWORDS: Brain, Interfaces, Magnetic resonance imaging, In vivo imaging, Image segmentation, Convolution, Image processing, Natural surfaces, Data acquisition, Time metrology
In this paper we describe the application of folding measures to tracking in vivo cortical brain development in premature neonatal brain anatomy. The outer gray matter and the gray-white matter interface surfaces were extracted from semi-interactively segmented high-resolution T1 MRI data. Nine curvature- and geometric descriptor-based folding measures were applied to six premature infants, aged 28-37 weeks, using a direct voxelwise iso-surface representation. We have shown that using such an approach it is feasible to extract meaningful surfaces of adequate quality from typical clinically acquired neonatal MRI data. We have shown that most of the folding measures, including a new proposed measure, are sensitive to changes in age and therefore applicable in developing a model that tracks development in premature infants. For the first time gyrification measures have been computed on the gray-white matter interface and on cases whose age is representative of a period of intense brain development.
The implementation of Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging (MRSI) for diagnostic imaging benefits from close integration of
the lower-spatial resolution MRSI information with information
from high-resolution structural MRI. Since patients can commonly
move between acquisitions, it is necessary to account for possible
mis-registration between the datasets arising from differences in
patient positioning. In this paper we evaluate the use of 4 common
multi-modality registration criteria to recover alignment between
high resolution structural MRI and 3D MRSI data of the brain with
sub-voxel accuracy. We explore the use of alternative MRSI water
reference images to provide different types of structural information for the alignment process. The alignment accuracy was
evaluated using both synthetically created MRSI and MRI data and a
set of carefully collected subject image data with known ground
truth spatial transformation between image volumes. The final
accuracy and precision of estimates were assessed using multiple
random starts of the registration algorithm. Sub voxel accuracy
was found by all four similarity criteria with normalized mutual
information providing the lowest target registration error for the
7 subject images. This effort supports the ongoing development of
a database of brain metabolite distributions in normal subjects,
which will be used in the evaluation of metabolic changes in
neurological diseases.
This paper focuses on the problem of accurately extracting the CSF-tissue boundary, particularly around the ventricular surface, from serial structural MRI of the brain acquired in imaging studies of aging and dementia. This is a challenging problem because of the common occurrence of peri-ventricular lesions which locally alter the appearance of white matter. We examine a level set approach which evolves a four dimensional description of the ventricular surface over time. This has the advantage of allowing constraints on the contour in the temporal dimension, improving the consistency of the extracted object over time. We follow the approach proposed by Chan and Vese which is based on the Mumford and Shah model and implemented using the Osher and Sethian level set method. We have extended this to the 4 dimensional case to propagate a 4D contour toward the tissue boundaries through the evolution of a 5D implicit function. For convergence we use region-based information provided by the image rather than the gradient of the image. This is adapted to allow intensity contrast changes between time frames in the MRI sequence. Results on time sequences of 3D brain MR images are presented and discussed.
This paper examines a refinement to probabilistic intensity based tissue segmentation methods, which makes use of knowledge derived from an MRI bias field estimate. Intensity based labeling techniques have employed local smoothness priors to reduce voxel level tissue labeling errors, by making use of the assumption that, within uniform regions of tissue, a voxel should be highly likely to have a similar tissue assignment to its neighbors. Increasing the size of this neighborhood provides more robustness to noise, but reduces the ability to describe small structures. However, when intensity bias due to RF field inhomogeneity is present within the MRI data, local contrast to noise may vary across the image. We therefore propose an approach to refining the labeling by making use of the bias field estimate, to adapt the neighborhood size applied to reduce local labeling errors. We explore the use of a radially symmetric Gaussian weighted neighborhood, and the use of the mean and median of the adapted region probabilities, to refine local probabilistic labeling. The approach is evaluated using the Montreal brainweb MRI simulator as a gold standard providing known gray, white and CSF tissue segmentation. These results show that the method is capable of improving the local tissue labeling in areas most influenced by inhomogeneity. The method appears most promising in its application to regional tissue volume analysis or higher field MRI data where bias field inhomogeneity can be significant.
In this work we consider the process of aligning a set of anatomical MRI scans, from a group of subjects, to a single reference MRI scan as accurately as possible. A key requirement of this anatomical normalization is the ability to bring into alignment brain images with different ages and disease states with equal accuracy and precision, enabling the unbiased comparison of different groups. Typical images of such anatomy may vary in terms of both tissue shape, location and contrast. To address this we have developed, a highly localized free-form inter-subject registration algorithm driven by normalized mutual information. This employs an efficient multi-image resolution and multi-deformation resolution registration procedure. In this paper we examine the behavior of this algorithm when applied to aligning high-resolution MRI of groups of younger, older and atrophied brain anatomy to different target anatomies. To gain an insight into the quality of the spatial normalization, we have examined two properties of the transformations: The residual intensity differences between spatially normalized MRI values and the spatial discrepancies in transformation estimates between group and reference, derived from transformations between 168 different image pairs. These are examined with respect to the coarseness of the deformation model employed.
KEYWORDS: Distortion, Magnetic resonance imaging, Functional magnetic resonance imaging, Image registration, Data acquisition, Signal processing, Associative arrays, Tin, Magnetism, Ions
In previous work we have introduced an approach to improving the registration of EPI fMRI data with anatomical MRI by accounting for differences in magnetic field induced geometric distortion in the two types of MRI acquisition. In particular we began to explore the use of imaging physics based constraints in a non-rigid multi-modality registration algorithm. In this paper we present phantom based experimental work examining the behavior of different non-rigid registration constraints compared to a field map acquisition of the MRI distortion. This acquisition provides a pixel by pixel 'ground truth' estimate of the displacement field within the EPI data. In our registration based approach we employ a B-spline based estimate of the relative geometric distortion with a multi-grid optimization scheme. We maximize the normalized mutual information between the two types of MRI scans to estimate the B-Spline parameters. Using the field map estimates as a gold standard, registration estimates using no additional geometric constraints are compared to those using the spin echo based signal conservation. We also examine the use of logarithmic EPI values in the criteria to provide additional sensitivity in areas of low signal. Results indicate that registration of EPI to conventional MRI incorporating a spin echo distortion model can provide comparable estimates of geometric distortion to those from field mapping data without the need for significant additional acquisitions during each fMRI sequence.
Spoiled gradient echo volume MR scans were obtained from 5 growth hormone (GH) patients and 6 normal controls. The patients were scanned before treatment and after 3 and 6 months of GH therapy. The controls were scanned at similar intervals. A calibration phantom was scanned on the same day as each subject. The phantom images were registered with a 9 degree of freedom algorithm to measure scaling errors due to changes in scanner calibration. The second and third images were each registered with a 6 degree of freedom algorithm to the first (baseline) image by maximizing normalized mutual information, and transformed, with and without scaling error correction, using sinc interpolation. Each registered and transformed image had the baseline image subtracted to generate a difference image. Two neuro-radiologists were trained to detect structural change with difference images containing synthetic misregistration and scale changes. They carried out a blinded assessment of anatomical change for the unregistered; aligned and subtracted; and scale corrected, aligned and subtracted images. The results show a significant improvement in the detection of structural change and inter-observer agreement when aligned and subtracted images were used instead of unregistered ones. The structural change corresponded to an increase in brain: CSF ratio.
Automated multi-modality 3D medical image alignment has been an active area of research for many years. There have been a number of recent papers proposing and investigating the use of entropy derived measures of brain image alignment. Any registration measure must allow us to choose between transformation estimates based on the similarity of images within their volume of overlap. Since 3D medical images often have a limited extent and overlap, the similarity measure for the two transformation estimates may be derived from two very different regions within the images. Direct measures of information such as the joint entropy and mutual information will therefore be a function of, not only image similarity in the region of overlap, but also of the local image content within the overlap. In this paper we present a new measure, normalized mutual information, which is simply the ratio of the sum of the marginal entropies and the joint entropy. The effect of changing overlap on current entropy measures and this normalized measure are compared using a simple image model and experiments on clinical MR-PET and MR-CT image data. Results indicate that the normalized entropy measure provides significantly improved behavior over a range of imaged fields of view.
All retrospective image registration methods have attached to them some intrinsic estimate of registration error. However, this estimate of accuracy may not always be a good indicator of the distance between actual and estimated positions of targets within the cranial cavity. This paper describes a project whose principal goal is to use a prospective method based on fiducial markers as a 'gold standard' to perform an objective, blinded evaluation of the accuracy of several retrospective image-to-image registration techniques. Image volumes of three modalities -- CT, MR, and PET -- were taken of patients undergoing neurosurgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. These volumes had all traces of the fiducial markers removed, and were provided to project collaborators outside Vanderbilt, who then performed retrospective registrations on the volumes, calculating transformations from CT to MR and/or from PET to MR, and communicated their transformations to Vanderbilt where the accuracy of each registration was evaluated. In this evaluation the accuracy is measured at multiple 'regions of interest,' i.e. areas in the brain which would commonly be areas of neurological interest. A region is defined in the MR image and its centroid C is determined. Then the prospective registration is used to obtain the corresponding point C' in CT or PET. To this point the retrospective registration is then applied, producing C' in MR. Statistics are gathered on the target registration error (TRE), which is the disparity between the original point C and its corresponding point C'. A second goal of the project is to evaluate the importance of correcting geometrical distortion in MR images, by comparing the retrospective TRE in the rectified images, i.e., those which have had the distortion correction applied, with that of the same images before rectification. This paper presents preliminary results of this study along with a brief description of each registration technique and an estimate of both preparation and execution time needed to perform the registration .
We present the concept of the feature space sequence: 2D distributions of voxel features of two images generated at registration and a sequence of misregistrations. We provide an explanation of the structure seen in these images. Feature space sequences have been generated for a pair of MR image volumes identical apart from the addition of Gaussian noise to one, MR image volumes with and without Gadolinium enhancement, MR and PET-FDG image volumes and MR and CT image volumes, all of the head. The structure seen in the feature space sequences was used to devise two new measures of similarity which in turn were used to produce plots of cost versus misregistration for the 6 degrees of freedom of rigid body motion. One of these, the third order moment of the feature space histogram, was used to register the MR image volumes with and without Gadolinium enhancement. These techniques have the potential for registration accuracy to within a small fraction of a voxel or resolution element and therefore interpolation errors in image transformation can be the dominant source of error in subtracted images. We present a method for removing these errors using sinc interpolation and show how interpolation errors can be reduced by over two orders of magnitude.
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