Nhat Trung
Doan1, Maarten J. Versluis2, Sanneke van Rooden, Jeroen
van der Grond, Andrew Webb2, Mark A. van Buchem, Johan H.C. Reiber1,
Julien Milles1
1LKEB - Department of Radiology, Leiden
University Medical Center, Leiden, Zuid Holland, Netherlands; 2CJ
Gorter Center - Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center,
Leiden, Zuid Holland, Netherlands
The
aim of this work is to implement a phase-based approach for the automated
segmentation of the cerebral cortex in T2* data of elderly patients acquired
using a 7T MR scanner. These data show essentially no gray/white matter
contrast on magnitude images. The method is divided into two stages. The
first step makes use of k-means clustering to segment the outer layer of the
cortex. The obtained contour is subsequently deformed to match the gray/white
matter interface based on the improved contrast in phase images, thereby
resulting in a full segmentation of the cerebral cortex.