IXICO has presented new data demonstrating that automated capabilities to measure brain volume loss on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within its IXI™ Platform are at a minimum matching, and in some measures exceeding, the performance of semi-manual methods which require manual analysis by (human) experts.
The accurate measurement of brain volume shrinkage (brain atrophy), caused by the loss of brain cells and the breakdown of connections between them, is fundamental to developing new treatments for a number of neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s Disease (HD). Traditionally, researchers have relied on a semi-manual approach to measure brain volume loss, known as the Boundary Shift Integral (BSI) which is currently considered to be the ‘gold standard’ method of analysis.
In a recent study conducted by IXICO and a large US pharmaceutical partner, the results show that automated capabilities to measure brain atrophy on MRI within its IXI™ Platform match or exceed the performance of the semi-manual BSI method, providing an advanced, cost-effective and scalable solution to support clinical trials in HD. Of the three approaches evaluated to measure brain atrophy, IXI™ demonstrated it was the most sensitive method for detecting whole brain and caudate (a small region deep in the brain impacted early in HD) volume loss.
The data is being presented in a scientific poster at the 21st Annual Huntington’s Disease Therapeutics Conference in California, USA this week (23-26 February 2026).
