An Automated Method for Segmenting White Matter Lesions through Multi-Level Morphometric Feature Classification with Application to Lupus

Scully M, Anderson B, Lane T, Gasparovic C, Magnotta V, Sibbitt W, Roldan C, Kikinis R, Bockholt HJ. An Automated Method for Segmenting White Matter Lesions through Multi-Level Morphometric Feature Classification with Application to Lupus. Front Hum Neurosci. 2010;4:27.

Abstract

We demonstrate an automated, multi-level method to segment white matter brain lesions and apply it to lupus. The method makes use of local morphometric features based on multiple MR sequences, including T1-weighted, T2-weighted, and fluid attenuated inversion recovery. After preprocessing, including co-registration, brain extraction, bias correction, and intensity standardization, 49 features are calculated for each brain voxel based on local morphometry. At each level of segmentation a supervised classifier takes advantage of a different subset of the features to conservatively segment lesion voxels, passing on more difficult voxels to the next classifier. This multi-level approach allows for a fast lesion classification method with tunable trade-offs between sensitivity and specificity producing accuracy comparable to a human rater.
Last updated on 02/24/2023