Abstract #1241

Hybrid Atlas Based Tissue Segmentation for Neonatal Brain MRI Acquired Using a Dedicated Phased Array Coil

Feng Shi¹, Yong Fan¹, Jie-Zhi Cheng¹, Lawrence L. Wald^2,3, Guido Gerig⁴, Weili Lin¹, Dinggang Shen¹

¹Department of Radiology and BRIC, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; ²A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, USA; ³Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, USA; ⁴Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah, USA

Tissue segmentation in neonatal brain MR image is a great challenge due to small brain size and low tissue contrast. To address this problem, a dedicated phased array neonatal head coil was utilized for brain imaging. 8 images of each modality (T1 or T2) were acquired with their corresponding coil sensitivity profiles. High quality T1 and T2 images were reconstructed with high tissue contrast and clear cortical convolutions. A novel hybrid atlas based MRI segmentation algorithm was developed, by combining the fuzzy population atlas and traced cortical convolutions. Results illustrate segmentation accuracy and potential for cortical surface analysis.