부산대학교 도서관

Magnetic Resonance Images of the brain provide detailed anatomical information that allows morphological analysis of the different brain structures. The analysis of the cortical folding patterns variation is inspiring great interest, as this relates to cognitive function. The sulci are a depression in the cerebral cortex and represent ≈ 70% of the cortical surface. The sulcal width, depth and cortical thickness are the most frequent morphological descriptors applied to the sulci. In this work, the 3D tortuosity is proposed as new descriptor to capture information about the twist and turns of the sulci. 1 The 3D tortuosity of the central sulcus of both hemispheres was measured using the Minimal Interval Resonance Imaging in the Alzheimer's Disease (MIRIAD) database, for a set of high-resolution MRI of 66 subjects: 43 patients with Alzheimer Disease (AD) and 23 control subjects. As it is known AD causes significant gray matter loss which cause morphological changes in the cortical structure. It is expected for the tortuosity to capture these changes and serve as a biomarker to differentiate between populations. The result of the Wilcoxon tests show that the tortuosity values of the central sulci are significantly larger for the AD patients (p < 0.05) for the left hemisphere, which is consistent with the hypothesis. The evaluation of the proposed tortuosity measurement of the Central Sulcus as a potential biomarker was performed and the results indicate its effectiveness to extract additional anatomical information and discriminate between AD patients and Controls.