Abstract #2840

Segmentation of Multiple Sclerosis Lesions Using Quantitative MRI

Dagmar R. Lang¹, Veronika Ermer¹, N. Jon Shah^1,2, Heiko Neeb³

¹Institute of Neurosciences and Biophysics, Research Centre Juelich, Juelich, Germany; ²Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neurology, RWTH Aachen University, JARA, Aachen, Germany; ³RheinAhrCampus Remagen, University of Applied Sciences Koblenz, Remagen, Germany

Quantitative MRI provides the possibility to accurately monitor the course of neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis. Quantitative maps of the absolute water content of the brain of MS patients exhibit an approximately 8 % higher water content in lesions compared to that of the normal appearing white matter (WM). In order to investigate different characteristics of lesions in pure WM or close to the ventricles, different automatic segmentation algorithms were developed. Based on an improved tissue segmentation approach, lesions were segmented using the combination of a quantitative water content brain atlas and typical lesion characteristics such as the quantitative MR parameter distribution or the spatial localisation.