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Journal of Imaging Informatics in Medicine

Published in:

01-08-2018

Application of Color Transformation Techniques in Pediatric Spinal Cord MR Images: Typically Developing and Spinal Cord Injury Population

Authors: Mahdi Alizadeh, Pallav Shah, Chris J. Conklin, Devon M. Middleton, Sona Saksena, Adam E. Flanders, Laura Krisa, MJ Mulcahey, Scott H. Faro, Feroze B. Mohamed

Published in: Journal of Imaging Informatics in Medicine | Issue 4/2018

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an improved and reliable visualization method for pediatric spinal cord MR images in healthy subjects and patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). A total of 15 pediatric volunteers (10 healthy subjects and 5 subjects with cervical SCI) with a mean age of 11.41 years (range 8–16 years) were recruited and scanned using a 3.0T Siemens Verio MR scanner. T2-weighted axial images were acquired covering entire cervical spinal cord level C1 to C7. These gray-scale images were then converted to color images by using five different techniques including hue-saturation-value (HSV), rainbow, red-green-blue (RGB), and two enhanced RGB techniques using automated contrast stretching and intensity inhomogeneity correction. Performance of these techniques was scored visually by two neuroradiologists within three selected cervical spinal cord intervertebral disk levels (C2-C3, C4-C5, and C6-C7) and quantified using signal to noise ratio (SNR) and contrast to noise ratio (CNR). Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the color images shows consistent improvement across all the healthy and SCI subjects over conventional gray-scale T2-weighted gradient echo (GRE) images. Inter-observer reliability test showed moderate to strong intra-class correlation (ICC) coefficients in the proposed techniques (ICC > 0.73). The results suggest that the color images could be used for quantification and enhanced visualization of the spinal cord structures in addition to the conventional gray-scale images. This would immensely help towards improved delineation of the gray/white and CSF structures and further aid towards accurate manual or automatic drawings of region of interests (ROIs).

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Title: Application of Color Transformation Techniques in Pediatric Spinal Cord MR Images: Typically Developing and Spinal Cord Injury Population
Authors: Mahdi Alizadeh
Pallav Shah
Chris J. Conklin
Devon M. Middleton
Sona Saksena
Adam E. Flanders
Laura Krisa
MJ Mulcahey
Scott H. Faro
Feroze B. Mohamed
Publication date: 01-08-2018
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Published in: Journal of Imaging Informatics in Medicine / Issue 4/2018
Print ISSN: 2948-2925
Electronic ISSN: 2948-2933
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-017-0048-5

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Application of Color Transformation Techniques in Pediatric Spinal Cord MR Images: Typically Developing and Spinal Cord Injury Population

Abstract

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on sleep in brain health

Springer Medicine

Abstract

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