Biomedical Imaging Laboratory, Agency for Science Technology and Research, 30 Biopolis Street, #07-01 Matrix, Singapore 138671, Singapore.
J Neurosci Methods. 2012;206(2):205-16. doi: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2012.02.026. Epub 2012 Mar 7.
Knowledge of the cranial nerves and their nuclei is critical in clinical practice, medical research and education. However to our best knowledge, a comprehensive source capturing full three-dimensional (3D) relationships of the cranial nerves along with surrounding neuroanatomy is not yet available. This work addresses the construction and validation of an atlas of the cranial nerves with their nuclei, correlated with surface neuroanatomy, vasculature, and magnetic resonance imaging. The atlas is interactive, stereotactic, 3D, detailed, fully parcellated, completely labeled, consistent in 3D, electronically dissectible, and scalable. A 3D geometrical model of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves with nuclei was created from an in vivo magnetic resonance scan exploiting in-house developed tools and methods, including tubular and iso-surface modeling, interactive editing, and mesh compression. This virtual model contains 439 objects with 121 different names, labeled based on Terminologia Anatomica. The model was integrated with a 3D atlas of structure, vasculature and tracts developed earlier, and correlated with sectional magnetic resonance anatomy. The whole model or its components can be interactively rotated, zoomed, panned, and add or removed with a simple few clicks. The studied material can be adaptively selected in an in-depth manner by using controls available in the user interface. This atlas is potentially useful for anatomy browsing, user self-testing, automatic student assessment, preparing materials, and localization in clinical neurology.
颅神经及其核的知识在临床实践、医学研究和教育中至关重要。然而，据我们所知，目前还没有一个全面的资源可以捕捉到颅神经及其周围神经解剖结构的完整三维（3D）关系。本研究旨在构建和验证一个包含颅神经及其核、与表面神经解剖学、血管和磁共振成像相关联的颅神经图谱。该图谱具有交互性、立体定向性、3D 性、详细性、完全分割性、完全标记性、3D 一致性、电子可解剖性和可扩展性。利用内部开发的工具和方法，从活体磁共振扫描中创建了一个包含 12 对颅神经及其核的 3D 几何模型，包括管状和等表面建模、交互式编辑和网格压缩。这个虚拟模型包含 439 个物体，有 121 个不同的名称，根据解剖学术语进行了标记。该模型与之前开发的结构、血管和束的 3D 图谱进行了整合，并与磁共振断层解剖学进行了关联。整个模型或其组件可以通过简单的几次点击进行交互式旋转、缩放、平移、添加或删除。通过用户界面中提供的控件，可以以深入的方式自适应地选择研究材料。该图谱对于解剖浏览、用户自测、自动学生评估、准备材料和临床神经病学中的定位可能非常有用。
