Morphometric analysis of the lateral ventricles in living human.

The evaluation of the volume of the encephalic ventricles in the living human has a great importance in diagnosis and monitoring of several pathologies. As well as a good measuring accuracy, a great usefulness has the facility of execution. The present study would be a contribution to the search of systems of analysis that assure both fast execution and greatest precision of the quantitative values. Brain MRI scans from 10 female individuals, aged from 25 to 60, with no apparent neurologic or psychiatric pathology have been studied. The brains were evaluated with 5 mm slices thickness (gap 1 mm) scans performed in axial and coronal planes and obtained by means of long and short spin echo sequences. Images have been acquired on a Personal Computer and submitted to a semiautomatic morphometric analysis. The values obtained are in accordance with the range of normal values reported from the literature, showing also a lower standard deviation; besides this clear accuracy of measurement, it's important to emphasize the facility and swiftness in the execution of the imagine evaluation.