Improving the Quantification of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Novel 3D-Edge Enhancement Technique
The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is a small, inhomogeneous structure that relays major sensory inputs from the retina to the visual cortex. LGN morphology has been intensively studied due to various retinal diseases, as well as in the context of normal brain development. However, many of the met...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-12-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncom.2021.708866/full |
| _version_ | 1818694803153485824 |
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| author | Mikhail Lipin Jean Bennett Gui-Shuang Ying Yinxi Yu Manzar Ashtari |
| author_facet | Mikhail Lipin Jean Bennett Gui-Shuang Ying Yinxi Yu Manzar Ashtari |
| author_sort | Mikhail Lipin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is a small, inhomogeneous structure that relays major sensory inputs from the retina to the visual cortex. LGN morphology has been intensively studied due to various retinal diseases, as well as in the context of normal brain development. However, many of the methods used for LGN structural evaluations have not adequately addressed the challenges presented by the suboptimal routine MRI imaging of this structure. Here, we propose a novel method of edge enhancement that allows for high reliability and accuracy with regard to LGN morphometry, using routine 3D-MRI imaging protocols. This new algorithm is based on modeling a small brain structure as a polyhedron with its faces, edges, and vertices fitted with one plane, the intersection of two planes, and the intersection of three planes, respectively. This algorithm dramatically increases the contrast-to-noise ratio between the LGN and its surrounding structures as well as doubling the original spatial resolution. To show the algorithm efficacy, two raters (MA and ML) measured LGN volumes bilaterally in 19 subjects using the edge-enhanced LGN extracted areas from the 3D-T1 weighted images. The averages of the left and right LGN volumes from the two raters were 175 ± 8 and 174 ± 9 mm3, respectively. The intra-class correlations between raters were 0.74 for the left and 0.81 for the right LGN volumes. The high contrast edge-enhanced LGN images presented here, from a 7-min routine 3T-MRI acquisition, is qualitatively comparable to previously reported LGN images that were acquired using a proton density sequence with 30–40 averages and 1.5-h of acquisition time. The proposed edge-enhancement algorithm is not limited only to the LGN, but can significantly improve the contrast-to-noise ratio of any small deep-seated gray matter brain structure that is prone to high-levels of noise and partial volume effects, and can also increase their morphometric accuracy and reliability. An immensely useful feature of the proposed algorithm is that it can be used retrospectively on noisy and low contrast 3D brain images previously acquired as part of any routine clinical MRI visit. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T13:35:23Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d4d4b2e19bc342b4ba46d40ddbd0349a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5188 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T13:35:23Z |
| publishDate | 2021-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-d4d4b2e19bc342b4ba46d40ddbd0349a2022-12-21T21:46:27ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience1662-51882021-12-011510.3389/fncom.2021.708866708866Improving the Quantification of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Novel 3D-Edge Enhancement TechniqueMikhail Lipin0Jean Bennett1Gui-Shuang Ying2Yinxi Yu3Manzar Ashtari4Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United StatesDepartment of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United StatesCenter for Preventative Ophthalmology and Biostatistics, Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United StatesCenter for Preventative Ophthalmology and Biostatistics, Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United StatesDepartment of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United StatesThe lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) is a small, inhomogeneous structure that relays major sensory inputs from the retina to the visual cortex. LGN morphology has been intensively studied due to various retinal diseases, as well as in the context of normal brain development. However, many of the methods used for LGN structural evaluations have not adequately addressed the challenges presented by the suboptimal routine MRI imaging of this structure. Here, we propose a novel method of edge enhancement that allows for high reliability and accuracy with regard to LGN morphometry, using routine 3D-MRI imaging protocols. This new algorithm is based on modeling a small brain structure as a polyhedron with its faces, edges, and vertices fitted with one plane, the intersection of two planes, and the intersection of three planes, respectively. This algorithm dramatically increases the contrast-to-noise ratio between the LGN and its surrounding structures as well as doubling the original spatial resolution. To show the algorithm efficacy, two raters (MA and ML) measured LGN volumes bilaterally in 19 subjects using the edge-enhanced LGN extracted areas from the 3D-T1 weighted images. The averages of the left and right LGN volumes from the two raters were 175 ± 8 and 174 ± 9 mm3, respectively. The intra-class correlations between raters were 0.74 for the left and 0.81 for the right LGN volumes. The high contrast edge-enhanced LGN images presented here, from a 7-min routine 3T-MRI acquisition, is qualitatively comparable to previously reported LGN images that were acquired using a proton density sequence with 30–40 averages and 1.5-h of acquisition time. The proposed edge-enhancement algorithm is not limited only to the LGN, but can significantly improve the contrast-to-noise ratio of any small deep-seated gray matter brain structure that is prone to high-levels of noise and partial volume effects, and can also increase their morphometric accuracy and reliability. An immensely useful feature of the proposed algorithm is that it can be used retrospectively on noisy and low contrast 3D brain images previously acquired as part of any routine clinical MRI visit.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncom.2021.708866/fullsegmentationbrain morphometryMRInoise immunitypartial volume effectLGN |
| spellingShingle | Mikhail Lipin Jean Bennett Gui-Shuang Ying Yinxi Yu Manzar Ashtari Improving the Quantification of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Novel 3D-Edge Enhancement Technique Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience segmentation brain morphometry MRI noise immunity partial volume effect LGN |
| title | Improving the Quantification of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Novel 3D-Edge Enhancement Technique |
| title_full | Improving the Quantification of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Novel 3D-Edge Enhancement Technique |
| title_fullStr | Improving the Quantification of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Novel 3D-Edge Enhancement Technique |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improving the Quantification of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Novel 3D-Edge Enhancement Technique |
| title_short | Improving the Quantification of the Lateral Geniculate Nucleus in Magnetic Resonance Imaging Using a Novel 3D-Edge Enhancement Technique |
| title_sort | improving the quantification of the lateral geniculate nucleus in magnetic resonance imaging using a novel 3d edge enhancement technique |
| topic | segmentation brain morphometry MRI noise immunity partial volume effect LGN |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncom.2021.708866/full |
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