BRAIN IMAGING QUANTITATION TECHNIQUES

THE GOAL OF THIS PHASE I EFFORT IS TO DEVELOP AND VALIDATE A CAPABILITY FOR QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS AND DISPLAY OF CT, MRI, AND ECT IMAGES OF THE BRAIN. WE PROPOSE TO DEVELOP AND VALIDATE THE OVERALL APPROACH OF MULTI-MODAL IMAGE REGISTRATION AND DISPLAY OF THE IMAGES, FILTERING OF ECT DATA TO SIMULTANEOUSLY ENHANCE RESOLUTION AND REDUCE NOISE, AND TECHNIQUES TO GENERATE PRECISE QUANTITATION OF TWO AND THREE-DIMENSIONAL REGIONS OF INTEREST. THERE ARE SIX MAJOR PROJECT ELEMENTS. REGISTRATION WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED USING EXTERNAL FIDUCIALS. RESCALING WILL USE ANAMORPHICALLY STRETCHING OF FILM IMAGES. FILTERING WILL USE ADVANCED FOURIER ANALYSIS. QUANTITATION WILL INCLUDE SIX DISTINCT MODES OF SPATIAL ROI SAMPLING. 3D DISPLAY/QUANTITATION WILL BE DEVELOPED WITH INTERACTIVE CAPABILITIES BASED ON EXISTING 3D DISPLAY TECHNIQUES. AUTOMATED REGIONS OF INTEREST WILL ALLOW THE USER THREE MODALITIES TO SELECT SPECIFIC AREAS. STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF THE DATA WILL BE BUILT INTO THE PROGRAM. THE VEHICLE FOR THESE CAPABILITIES WILL BE A VERSION OF THE LOATS ASSOCIATES BIOMEDICAL IMAGE ANALYSIS SYSTEM WHICH WAS DEVELOPED IN PART WITH THE SUPPORT OF AN SBIR GRANT.