Dataset Information

Quantification of deep medullary veins at 7 T brain MRI.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Deep medullary veins support the venous drainage of the brain and may display abnormalities in the context of different cerebrovascular diseases. We present and evaluate a method to automatically detect and quantify deep medullary veins at 7 T.

Methods

Five participants were scanned twice, to assess the robustness and reproducibility of manual and automated vein detection. Additionally, the method was evaluated on 24 participants to demonstrate its application. Deep medullary veins were assessed within an automatically created region-of-interest around the lateral ventricles, defined such that all veins must intersect it. A combination of vesselness, tubular tracking, and hysteresis thresholding located individual veins, which were quantified by counting and computing (3-D) density maps.

Results

Visual assessment was time-consuming (2 h/scan), with an intra-/inter-observer agreement on absolute vein count of ICC?=?0.76 and 0.60, respectively. The automated vein detection showed excellent inter-scan reproducibility before (ICC?=?0.79) and after (ICC?=?0.88) visually censoring false positives. It had a positive predictive value of 71.6 %.

Conclusion

Imaging at 7 T allows visualization and quantification of deep medullary veins. The presented method offers fast and reliable automated assessment of deep medullary veins.

Key points

• Deep medullary veins support the venous drainage of the brain • Abnormalities of these veins may indicate cerebrovascular disease and quantification is needed • Automated methods can achieve this and support human observers • The presented method provides robust and reproducible detection of veins • Intuitive quantification is provided via count and venous density maps.

SUBMITTER: Kuijf HJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5021732 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Quantification of deep medullary veins at 7 T brain MRI.

Kuijf Hugo J HJ Bouvy Willem H WH Zwanenburg Jaco J M JJ Razoux Schultz Tom B TB Viergever Max A MA Vincken Koen L KL Biessels Geert Jan GJ

European radiology 20160216 10

<h4>Objectives</h4>Deep medullary veins support the venous drainage of the brain and may display abnormalities in the context of different cerebrovascular diseases. We present and evaluate a method to automatically detect and quantify deep medullary veins at 7 T.<h4>Methods</h4>Five participants were scanned twice, to assess the robustness and reproducibility of manual and automated vein detection. Additionally, the method was evaluated on 24 participants to demonstrate its application. Deep med ...[more]

PMID: 26883328

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Dataset Information

Quantification of deep medullary veins at 7 T brain MRI.

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Key points

Publications

Quantification of deep medullary veins at 7 T brain MRI.

Similar Datasets

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