Published in:
01-03-2010 | Diagnostic Neuroradiology
An enhanced voxel-based morphometry method to investigate structural changes: application to Alzheimer’s disease
Authors:
Xingfeng Li, Arnaud Messé, Guillaume Marrelec, Mélanie Pélégrini-Issac, Habib Benali
Published in:
Neuroradiology
|
Issue 3/2010
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Abstract
Introduction
When characterizing regional cerebral gray matter differences in structural magnetic resonance images (sMRI) by voxel-based morphometry (VBM), one faces a known drawback of VBM, namely that histogram unequalization in the intensity images introduces false-positive results.
Methods
To overcome this limitation, we propose to improve VBM by a new approach (called eVBM for enhanced VBM) that takes the histogram distribution of the sMRI into account by adding a histogram equalization step within the VBM procedure. Combining this technique with two most widely used VBM software packages (FSL and SPM), we studied GM variability in a group of 62 patients with Alzheimer’s disease compared to 73 age-matched elderly controls.
Results
The results show that eVBM can reduce the number of false-positive differences in gray matter concentration.
Conclusion
Because it takes advantage of the properties of VBM while improving sMRI histogram distribution at the same time, the proposed method is a powerful approach for analyzing gray matter differences in sMRI and may be of value in the investigation of sMRI gray and white matter abnormalities in a variety of brain diseases.