Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, St. Josef Hospital, Ruhr University Bochum, Gudrunstrasse 56, D-44791 Bochum, Germany.
Psychiatry Res. 2011 Aug 30;193(2):123-30. doi: 10.1016/j.pscychresns.2011.01.008. Epub 2011 Jun 15.
Precise volumetry of the cerebellum still remains challenging, due to thin sulci and gyri. We present a new fast and reliable sulcus-corrected approach for quantitative assessment of cerebellar atrophy, evaluated on patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). Thin-sliced T1-weighted magnetic resonance images (MPRAGE) were acquired in 11 genetically confirmed SCA6 patients and in a group of age-matched control subjects (n=14). Post-processing involves a morphological image segmentation pipeline as a basis for a sulcus-corrected cerebellar volume measurement. Cerebellar volumes and intra-rater, inter-rater and scan-rescan reproducibility were quantified. Reliability of the measurements was validated using an anatomical preparation of the cerebellum. Repeatability coefficients (RC: intra-rater/inter-rater/scan-rescan) of the method were 1.07%/1.11%/1.35%. Absolute cerebellar volumes showed good agreement with the actual volume of the anatomical preparation. The cerebellar volume of the SCA 6 was 96.3±12.1ml (mean±S.D.), which was significantly lower than the results of the corresponding control groups. The cerebellar volume correlated significantly to clinical dysfunction in SCA6. This is the first study to demonstrate the feasibility of a new sulcus-corrected approach to assess cerebellar volume. In contrast to currently used methods, this new approach may be more sensitive even to small atrophic changes affecting sulcal widening.
小脑的精确容积测量仍然具有挑战性，这是由于小脑的脑沟和脑回较薄。我们提出了一种新的快速可靠的沟回校正方法，用于定量评估小脑萎缩，该方法在遗传性小脑共济失调（SCA）患者中进行了评估。在 11 名经基因证实的 SCA6 患者和一组年龄匹配的对照组（n=14）中采集了薄层 T1 加权磁共振成像（MPRAGE）。后处理涉及形态图像分割管道，作为沟回校正小脑体积测量的基础。定量评估了小脑体积以及内部、内部和扫描-再扫描的可重复性。通过对小脑进行解剖学准备来验证测量的可靠性。该方法的重复性系数（RC：内部/内部/扫描-再扫描）为 1.07%/1.11%/1.35%。该方法的绝对小脑体积与解剖学准备的实际体积具有良好的一致性。SCA6 的小脑体积为 96.3±12.1ml（平均值±S.D.），明显低于相应对照组的结果。小脑体积与 SCA6 中的临床功能障碍显著相关。这是第一项证明新的沟回校正方法评估小脑体积可行性的研究。与目前使用的方法相比，这种新方法甚至可能对影响脑沟增宽的微小萎缩变化更敏感。
