Knowledge-based localization of hippocampus in human brain MRI

We present a novel and efficient method for localization of human brain structures such as hippocampus. Landmark localization is important for segmentation and registration. This method follows a statistical roadmap, consisting of anatomical landmarks, to reach the desired structures. Using a set of desired and undesired landmarks, identified on a training set, we estimate Gaussian models and determine optimal search areas for desired landmarks. The statistical models form a set of rules to evaluate the extracted landmarks during the search procedure. When applied on 900 MR images of 10 epileptic patients, this method demonstrated an overall success rate of 83%.