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Updated: May 31, 2026
Whole-brain Segmentation and Change-point Analysis of Anatomical Brain MRI—Application in Premanifest Huntington's Disease
Published on: June 9, 2018
Fully automated atlas-based MR imaging volumetry in Huntington disease, compared with manual volumetry
J Kassubek1, E H Pinkhardt, A Dietmaier
1Department of Neurology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany. jan.kassubek@uni-ulm.de
Insights
Automated Brain Volume (ABV) measurement effectively quantifies caudate atrophy in Huntington's disease (HD), matching manual methods. This faster, less subjective technique shows promise for clinical trials.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Neurodegenerative Diseases
- Biomarker Development
Background:
- Caudate atrophy is a key indicator of neurodegeneration in Huntington's disease (HD).
- Structural MRI offers potential for caudate volumetry as a biomarker.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare automated caudate volumetry (ABV) with manual delineation in HD patients.
- To evaluate the efficacy of ABV as a reliable biomarker for HD.
Main Methods:
- A cross-sectional volumetric study involving 40 HD patients and 30 healthy controls.
- First-time use of fully automated caudate measurement (ABV) in HD, compared directly to manual volumetry.
Main Results:
- Both automated brain volume (ABV) and manual methods effectively distinguished between HD patients and controls.
- Measurement differences were within agreement limits, with manual methods yielding lower values due to challenges in delineating the dorsal caudate tail.
Conclusions:
- Automated Brain Volume (ABV) is a viable alternative to manual volumetry for assessing caudate volume loss in HD.
- ABV offers advantages of speed, reduced labor, and eliminates subjective region-of-interest definition, making it suitable for clinical trials.
Background And Purpose:
The atrophy of the caudate is considered the hallmark of HD-associated neurodegeneration and has high potential as a biomarker in structural MR imaging. This study aimed at comparing automated and manual caudate volumetry.
Materials And Methods:
In this cross-sectional volumetric study in 40 patients with HD and 30 healthy controls, a fully automated caudate measurement by ABV was used for the first time in HD and was directly compared with manual delineation as the generally accepted criterion standard of volumetry.
Results:
It could be shown that both techniques were able to separate patients and controls to a similar degree. The differences between the 2 volumetric measurements ranged within the limits of agreement; the systematically lower values by manual volumetry were caused by the different assessment of the dorsal caudate tail, which is hard to delineate manually.
Conclusions:
ABV may be used instead of manual volumetry to quantify caudate volume loss. Additionally, the ABV technique has the advantage of being much faster, is less laborious, and is free of a subjective region-of interest definition. ABV might serve as a tool in potential future clinical trials of disease-modifying treatments in HD.
