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Synthetic atrophy for longitudinal surface-based cortical thickness measurement
Kathleen E Larson1, Ipek Oguz1
1Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA.
Summary
This study introduces a novel method for creating synthetic brain atrophy data to validate cortical thickness (CT) measurements. This technique enables accurate ground truth validation for surface-based CT analysis in research.
Area of Science:
- Neuroimaging
- Computational Neuroscience
- Medical Image Analysis
Background:
- Validating surface-based cortical thickness (CT) measurements is challenging due to the lack of ground truth.
- Existing synthetic data methods do not robustly measure exact thickness changes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a registration-based technique for inducing synthetic cortical atrophy.
- To create a longitudinal, ground truth dataset for validating surface-based CT measurement accuracy.
Main Methods:
- A registration-based technique was developed to induce synthetic cortical atrophy.
- Atrophy was induced at 400% of original resolution to achieve sub-voxel accuracy and minimize partial volume effects.
- The method utilizes publicly available software and datasets.
Main Results:
- The method can induce localized cortical atrophy ranging from 0.6 to 2.6 mm.
- It successfully minimizes partial volume effects by inducing sub-voxel resolution atrophy.
- The technique is extendable to validate longitudinal cortical segmentation and surface reconstruction pipelines.
Conclusions:
- The developed method provides a robust mechanism for creating ground truth data for CT measurement validation.
- This approach enhances the accuracy and reliability of surface-based neuroimaging analyses.
- The technique is broadly applicable to various neuroimaging validation tasks.
