MEMBERS' HIGHLIGHTS

This new system provides automatically objective measures of brain anatomy and can be used to study individual specific volumes of each part of the brain.

Researchers from the Biomedical Informatics Group (IBIME), directed by Dr. Montserrat Robles have developed a new software that allows to know in an objective and automatic manner the status and evolution of brain tissues affected by any neurological disease. The system measures the volume of different parts of the brain from magnetic resonance images automatically much faster than current methods.

This new software is one of the most accurate and advanced than currently exists in the world and is another milestone for the diagnosis, evaluation and clinical monitoring of diseases such as Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis among other central nervous system diseases. In its development researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia have worked together with Dr. Luis Martí-Bonmatí (head of radiology service of the Quirón Hospital of Valencia) and experts from the Montreal Neurological Institute (Canada).

The new software uses magnetic resonance images (MRI) and performs an automatic  process to determine the exact amount of white, gray and cerebrospinal fluid tissues in the different parts of the brain. One of the most specific characteristics of the new software is the use of pre-classified image template libraries that condense the anatomical knowledge required to do the classification mimicking the natural behavior of a radiologist during his training, that is, learning from examples.     

One of the main features of this new system is the ability to segment (ie, select) specific brain structures (such as the thalamus or the hippocampus) to study in detail their shape and size to later correlate with the status or the evolution of a specific pathology. The developed system is currently being evaluated and will be made publically accessible throw a web interface to the medical and scientific community at no cost soon.

The research developed from the laboratories of IBIME Group was published last January in the NeuroImage journal, one of the higher impact journals in the medical imaging filed.

PICTURE: José Vicente Manjón, a researcher at the Biomedical Informatics Group and designer of the new software.

Biomedical Informatics Group (IBIME) http://www.ibime.upv.es/