title: A new rapid landmark-based regional MRI segmentation method of the brain.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases show a distinct distribution of regional atrophy and subcortical lesions.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop an easily applicable landmark-based method for segmentation of the brain into the four cerebral lobes from MRI images.
  
  
  METHODS
  The segmentation method relies on a combination of anatomical landmarks and geometrical definitions. It is applied on the surface reconstruction of the MRI volume. The internal borders between the lobes are defined on the axial slices of the brain. The reliability of this method was determined from MRI scans of 10 subjects. To illustrate the use of the method, it was applied to MRI scans of an independent group of 10 healthy elderly subjects and 10 patients with vascular dementia to determine the regional distribution of white matter hyperintensities (WMH).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The intra-rater relative error (and intra-class correlation coefficient) of the lobe segmentation ranged from 1.6% to 6.9% (from 0.91 to 0.99). The inter-rater relative error (and intra-class correlation coefficient) ranged from 1.4% to 5.2% (from 0.96 to 0.99). Density of WMH was significantly higher in all four lobes in VD patients compared to controls (p<0.05). Within each group, WMH density was significantly higher in frontal and parietal than in temporal and occipital lobes (p<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This landmark based method can accommodate age and disease-related changes in brain morphology. It may be particularly useful for the study of neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular disease and for the validation of template-based automated techniques.
authors.affiliation: Dementia and Neuroimaging Section, Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Nussbaumstr. 7, 80336, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: A L W
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Bokde
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Teipel
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zebuhr
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leinsinger
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Gootjes
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Buerger
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Scheltens
authors.forename: H-J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Moeller
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hampel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology; D015140:Dementia, Vascular / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D015588:Observer Variation; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000473:pathology