Volumetric MRI

Brain volume & atrophy quantification

We are a recognised leader in the field of volumetric MRI analysis.

Change in brain volume or atrophy is one of the most established effects of many neurodegenerative diseases and we have been providing volumetric analysis for late phase trials for our partners for more than 12 years. We measure brain volume both cross-sectionally and longitudinally using our LEAP (Learning Embeddings for Atlas Propagation) pipeline, which provides the following measures:

  • Global – making measurements on the whole brain
  • Regional – measuring specific local brain regions

IXICO’s patented LEAP algorithm has been applied to thousands of datasets and provides accurate delineation of key brain structures, while quantifying the volume of up to 141 structures in a single workflow.

We also have implementations of the Boundary Shift Integral (BSI) approach – for the volumetric analysis of brain, caudate and ventricles, as well as cortical thickness measures from Freesurfer.

 

Volumetric MRI

White Matter Hyperintensities (WMH)

Our automated analysis accurately quantifies the volume of WMH

The identification of WMH is highly relevant to a dementia diagnosis, and is a criteria for the exclusion of subjects participating in a clinical trial, as well as a measure of treatment efficacy. We provide a visual read to screen subjects with severe vascular pathology. We can accurately quantify the volume of WMH using our automated method, assessing a subject’s 3D T1W and FLAIR MR images.

Our analysis delivers the volume of white matter, the volumes of hyperintense lesions, and the percentage of white matter hyperintensity. It can be applied to five regions of interest:

  • Whole white matter
  • Juxtaventricular
  • Periventricular
  • Deep white matter
  • Juxtacortical.

Our method uses tissue classification and hyperintenisty belief maps that are iteratively grown by analysing neighbouring voxels, and provides improved robustness to discriminate subjects with significant white matter pathology – with good correlation with Fazekas scoring and manual volumetry.

White Matter Hyperintensities