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Published on: June 23, 2023
Transcranial Ultrasonographic Image Analysis System for Decision Support in Parkinson Disease
Andrius Sakalauskas1, Vita Špečkauskienė2, Kristina Laučkaitė3
1Biomedical Engineering Institute, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, Lithuania.
Objectives:
Transcranial ultrasonography (US) is a relatively new neuroimaging modality proposed for early diagnostics of Parkinson disease (PD). The main limitation of transcranial US image-based diagnostics is a high degree of subjectivity caused by low quality of the transcranial images. The article presents a developed image analysis system and evaluates the potential of automated image analysis on transcranial US.
Methods:
The system consists of algorithms for the segmentation and assessment of informative brain regions (midbrain and substantia nigra) and a decision support subsystem, which is equipped with 64 classification algorithms. Transcranial US images of 191 participants (118 patients with a clinical PD diagnosis and 73 healthy control participants) were analyzed.
Results:
The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity achieved by the proposed system were 85% and 75%, respectively.
Conclusions:
Digital transcranial US image analysis is challenging, and the application of a such system as the sole instrument for decisions in clinical practice remains inconclusive. However, the proposed system could be used as a supplementary tool for automated assessment of US parameters for decision support in PD diagnostics and to reduce observer variability.
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