A Basic Study of an Objective Diagnostic Method to Determine the Severity of Alzheimer-type Dementia with the Use of MR Brain Images

• Published in: Japanese journal of medical electronics and biological engineering Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 74 - 79
• Main Authors: KODAMA, Naoki, HIWATASHI, Kei, FUKUMOTO, Ichiro, KAERIYAMA, Tomoharu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Japanese Society for Medical and Biological Engineering 2002; 一般社団法人 日本生体医工学会
• ISSN: 0021-3292; 2185-5498
• DOI: 10.11239/jsmbe1963.40.74

Using MR head images, we extracted the characteristics of Alzheimer-type dementia (ATD) from images and calculated diagnostic parameters and examined whether they would be useful for a distinction of normal elderly subjects (control) and ATD patients. Furthermore, we aimed at examining a possibility that the degree of ATD severity can be evaluated objectively by the use of diagnostic parameters. A significant difference existed between the control group and the ATD patient group in the calculated parameters, and it was suggested that each parameter is useful for the diagnosis of ATD. Moreover, the sensitivity and specificity of the combination of HIR (Hippocampus Intracranial Ratio) with VIR (Ventricle Intracranial Ratio) were 87.8% and 92.7%. Furthermore, as a result of performed multiple discriminant analysis for the degree of ATD severity after a discriminant analysis of control and ATD patients, the possibility of an objective evaluation of the degree of ATD severity was suggested.