TY - JOUR
T1 - Fractal dimension and white matter changes in multiple sclerosis
AU - Esteban, Francisco J.
AU - Sepulcre, Jorge
AU - de Mendizábal, Nieves Vélez
AU - Goñi, Joaquín
AU - Navas, Juan
AU - de Miras, Juan Ruiz
AU - Bejarano, Bartolome
AU - Masdeu, Jose C.
AU - Villoslada, Pablo
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Diego Maza, from the Department of Physics of the University of Navarra for his helpful comments. This work was supported by Junta de Andalucía (CVI-302) to FJER, and the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS PI051201) and Fundacion Uriach to PV. JS was a fellow of the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS CM#05/00222), NVM of the Basque Country Government and JG of the Navarra Government. The authors have no conflicting financial interests.
Copyright:
Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2007/7/1
Y1 - 2007/7/1
N2 - The brain white matter (WM) in multiple sclerosis (MS) suffers visible and non-visible (normal-appearing WM (NAWM)) changes in conventional magnetic resonance (MR) images. The fractal dimension (FD) is a quantitative parameter that characterizes the morphometric variability of a complex object. Our aim was to assess the usefulness of FD analysis in the measurement of WM abnormalities in conventional MR images in patients with MS, particularly to detect NAWM changes. First, we took on a voxel-based morphometry approach optimized for MS to obtain the segmented brain. Then, the FD of the whole grey-white matter interface (WM border) and skeletonized WM was calculated in patients with MS and healthy controls. To assess the FD of the NAWM, we focused our analysis on single sections without lesions at the centrum semiovale level. We found that patients with MS had a significant decrease in the FD of the entire brain WM compared with healthy controls. Such a decrease of the FD was detected not only on MR image sections with MS lesions but also on single sections with NAWM. Taken together, the results showed that FD identifies changes in the brain of patients with MS, including in NAWM, even at an early phase of the disease. Thus, FD might become a useful marker of diffuse damage of the central nervous system in MS.
AB - The brain white matter (WM) in multiple sclerosis (MS) suffers visible and non-visible (normal-appearing WM (NAWM)) changes in conventional magnetic resonance (MR) images. The fractal dimension (FD) is a quantitative parameter that characterizes the morphometric variability of a complex object. Our aim was to assess the usefulness of FD analysis in the measurement of WM abnormalities in conventional MR images in patients with MS, particularly to detect NAWM changes. First, we took on a voxel-based morphometry approach optimized for MS to obtain the segmented brain. Then, the FD of the whole grey-white matter interface (WM border) and skeletonized WM was calculated in patients with MS and healthy controls. To assess the FD of the NAWM, we focused our analysis on single sections without lesions at the centrum semiovale level. We found that patients with MS had a significant decrease in the FD of the entire brain WM compared with healthy controls. Such a decrease of the FD was detected not only on MR image sections with MS lesions but also on single sections with NAWM. Taken together, the results showed that FD identifies changes in the brain of patients with MS, including in NAWM, even at an early phase of the disease. Thus, FD might become a useful marker of diffuse damage of the central nervous system in MS.
KW - Fractal dimension
KW - Image analysis
KW - Magnetic resonance imaging
KW - Multiple sclerosis
KW - Normal appearing white matter
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.057
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.057
M3 - Article
C2 - 17499522
AN - SCOPUS:34250180164
VL - 36
SP - 543
EP - 549
JO - NeuroImage
JF - NeuroImage
SN - 1053-8119
IS - 3
ER -