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Resolution‐dependent estimates of lesion volumes in magnetic resonance imaging studies of the brain in multiple sclerosis
Author(s) -
Filippi M.,
Horsfield M. A.,
Campi A.,
Mammi S.,
Pereira C.,
Comi G.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.410380509
Subject(s) - lesion , magnetic resonance imaging , multiple sclerosis , nuclear medicine , volume (thermodynamics) , medicine , partial volume , radiology , materials science , pathology , physics , quantum mechanics , psychiatry
Abstract In this study, we investigated the relationship between multiple sclerosis lesion volumes measured from magnetic resonance imaging scans and image‐slice thickness. The lesion volume was computed using a semiautomated thresholding technique from axial scans of the brain of varying slice thickness. Ten patients were studied, and in all cases the computed lesion volume increased with decreasing slice thickness ( p = 0.01). Linear extrapolation from our data allowed the lesion volume at very small slice thickness to be estimated; this was found to be on average 20% greater than that obtained using a slice thickness of 5 mm. Furthermore, there were considerable differences in the percentage of change in lesion volume from patient to patient, and it would appear that there is a larger variation with slice thickness for patients with smaller lesions and higher lesion loads.