Deformable brain atlas validation of the location of subthalamic nucleus using T1-weighted MR images of patients operated on for Parkinson's.

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. One of the most effective treatments is deep brain stimulation. This technique requires the localization of an objective structure: the subthalamic nucleus. Unfortunately this structure is difficult to locate. In this work the creation of a deformable brain atlas that enables the identification of the subthalamic nucleus in T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in an automatic, precise and fast way is presented. The system has been validated using data from 10 patients (20 nucleus) operated on for Parkinson's. Our system offers better results using a Wendland function with an error of 1.8853+/-0.9959mm.