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Feature space analysis of MRI
Author(s) -
SoltanianZadeh Hamid,
Windham Joe P.,
Peck Donald J.,
Mikkelsen Tom
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.1910400315
Subject(s) - biopsy , feature (linguistics) , feature vector , white matter , segmentation , magnetic resonance imaging , artificial intelligence , pattern recognition (psychology) , computer science , nuclear medicine , pathology , medicine , radiology , philosophy , linguistics
This paper presents an MRI feature‐space image‐analysis method and its application to brain tumor studies. The proposed method generates a transformed feature space in which the normal tissues (white matter, gray matter, and CSF) become orthonormal. As such, the method is expected to have site‐to‐site and patient‐to‐patient consistency, and is useful for identification of tissue types, segmentation of tissues, and quantitative measurements on tissues. The steps of the work accomplished are as follows: (1) Four T 2 ‐weighted and two T 1 ‐weighted images (before and after injection of gadolinium) were acquired for 10 tumor patients. (2) Images were analyzed by an image analyst according to the proposed algorithm. (3) Biopsy samples were extracted from each patient and were subsequently analyzed by the pathology laboratory. (4) Image‐analysis results were compared with the biopsy results. Pre‐ and postsurgery feature spaces were also compared. The proposed method made it possible to visualize the MRI feature space and to segment the image. In all cases, the operators were able to find clusters for normal and abnorma tissues. Also, clusters for different zones of the tumor were found. The method successfully segmented the image into normal tissues (white matter, gray matter, and CSF) and different zones of the lesion (tumor, cyst, edema, radiation necrosis, necrotic core, and infiltrated tumor). The results agreed with those obtained from the biopsy samples. Comparison of pre‐ with postsurgery and radiation feature spaces illustrated that the original solid tumor was not present in the second study, but a new tissue component appeared in a different location of the feature space. This tissue could be radiation necrosis generated as a result of radiation.