[go: up one dir, main page]
Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Application of Color Transformation Techniques in Pediatric Spinal Cord MR Images: Typically Developing and Spinal Cord Injury Population

  • Published:
Journal of Digital Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate an improved and reliable visualization method for pediatric spinal cord MR images in healthy subjects and patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). A total of 15 pediatric volunteers (10 healthy subjects and 5 subjects with cervical SCI) with a mean age of 11.41 years (range 8–16 years) were recruited and scanned using a 3.0T Siemens Verio MR scanner. T2-weighted axial images were acquired covering entire cervical spinal cord level C1 to C7. These gray-scale images were then converted to color images by using five different techniques including hue-saturation-value (HSV), rainbow, red-green-blue (RGB), and two enhanced RGB techniques using automated contrast stretching and intensity inhomogeneity correction. Performance of these techniques was scored visually by two neuroradiologists within three selected cervical spinal cord intervertebral disk levels (C2-C3, C4-C5, and C6-C7) and quantified using signal to noise ratio (SNR) and contrast to noise ratio (CNR). Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of the color images shows consistent improvement across all the healthy and SCI subjects over conventional gray-scale T2-weighted gradient echo (GRE) images. Inter-observer reliability test showed moderate to strong intra-class correlation (ICC) coefficients in the proposed techniques (ICC > 0.73). The results suggest that the color images could be used for quantification and enhanced visualization of the spinal cord structures in addition to the conventional gray-scale images. This would immensely help towards improved delineation of the gray/white and CSF structures and further aid towards accurate manual or automatic drawings of region of interests (ROIs).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Fisahn C, Aach M, Jansen O, Moisi M, Mayadev A, Pagarigan KT, Dettori JR, Schildhauer TA: The effectiveness and safety of exoskeletons as assistive and rehabilitation devices in the treatment of neurologic gait disorders in patients with spinal cord injury: A systematic review. Global Spine Journal 6(8):822–841, 2016

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  2. Bickenback J: Launch of World Health Organization spinal cord injury report: International perspective on spinal cord injury. Geneva: WHO Press, 2013, 244p

    Google Scholar 

  3. Middleton DM, Mohamed FB, Barakat N et al.: An investigation of motion correction algorithms for pediatric spinal cord DTI in healthy subjects and Petients with spinal cord injury. Magnetic Resonance Imaging 32:433–439, 2014

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Fratini M, Moraschi M, Maraviglia B, Giove F: On the impact of physiological noise in spinal cord functional MRI. J Magn Reson Imaging 40(4):770–777, 2014

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Malisza KL, Martin T, Shiloff D et al.: Reactions of young children to the MRI scanner environment. Magn Reson Med 64:377–381, 2010

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Koschan A, Abidi M: Digital color image processing, 1st edition. John and Sons Inc: Hoboken, New Jersey, 2008, 382p

    Book  Google Scholar 

  7. Ward J, Magnotta V, Andreasen NC, Ooteman W, Nopoulos P, Pierson R: Color enhancement of multispectral MR images: Improving the visualization of subcortical structures. Journal of Computer Assisted Tomography 25(6):942–949, 2001

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Siti Noraini Sulaiman, Nor Ashidi Mat Isa, Nor Hayati Othman, Nor Hayati Mohamed Noor. Pseudocolor Feature Extraction Technique for Cervical Cancer Pap Smear Image, IEEE 10th International Conference on ISDA, 2010; 314–319.

  9. Tang H, Wu EX, Gallagher D, Heymsfield SB: Monochrome image representation and segmentation based on the Pseudocolor and PCT transformations, proceedings of the 23rd annual international conference of the IEEE in engineering in medicine and biology. Society 3:2696–2699, 2001

    Google Scholar 

  10. Krishblum SC: Et al. international standards for neurological classification of spinal cord injury: Case with classification challenges. The Journal of Spinal cord Medicine 37(2):120–127, 2014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Ozturk A, Aygun N, Smith SA, Caffo B, Calabresi PA, Reich DS: Axial 3D gradient Echo imaging for improved multiple sclerosis lesion detection in the cervical cord at 3T. Neuroradiology 55(4):431–439, 2013

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Suh PM, Jae-Yong B, Chang-Il C: Pseudocolor transformation for visualization of Ossicles in CT image. Acta oto-laryngologica 129:515–520, 2009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. David Borlan, Russel M. Taylor II. Rainbow Color Map (Still) Considered Harmful, IEEE Computer Society, 2007;14–17.

  14. J. H. Jang and J. R. Ra. Pseudocolor image fusion based on intensity-hue-saturation color space, Proceeding of IEEE International Conference on Multisensor Fusion and Integration for Intelligent Systems, 2008; 366–371.

  15. Govind B: Chavhan, Paul S. Babyn, Bejoy Thomas, Manohar M. Shroff, E. Mark Haacke. Principles, techniques and applications of T2*-based MR imaging and its applications. Radiographics 29(5):1433–1449, 2009

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Vovk U, Pernus F, Likar B: A review of methods for correction of intensity inhomogeneity in MRI. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging 26:405–421, 2007

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Styner M, Brechbuhler C, Szekely G, Gerig G: Parametric estimate of intensity Inhomogeneities applied to MRI. IEEE Transcations on Medical Imaging 19:153–165, 2000

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Mahdi Alizadeh, Feroze B. Mohamed, Scott H. Faro, Pallav Shah, Chris J. Conklin, Devon M. Middleton, Sona Saksena, Shiva Shahrampour, MJ Mulcahey. Intensity Inhomogeneity Correction in Clinical Pediatric Spinal Cord MRI Images, IEEE 41th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference (NBEC), 2015; 1–2.

  19. Alizadeh M, Talebpour A, Soltanian-Zadeh H, Aghamiri S. M. R. Effects of Improved Adaptive Gamma Correction Method on Wireless Capsule Endoscopy Images: Illumination Compensation and Edge Detection, ICEE 2012; 1544–1548.

  20. Alizadeh M, Soltanian Zadeh H, Haji Maghsoudi O. Segmentation of Small Bowel Tumors in Wireless Capsule Endoscopy Using Level Set Method, IEEE CBMS, 2014; 562–563.

  21. Sharma DP: Intensity transformation using contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization. International Journal of Engineering Research:282–285, 2013

  22. Muniyappan S, Allirani A, Saraswathi S. A Novel Approach for Image Enhancement by Using Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization Method, 4th ICCNT, 2013;1–6.

  23. Mohamed FB, Hunter LN, Barakat N, Liu C-SJ, Sair H, Samdani AF, Betz RR, Faro SH, Gaughan J, Mulcahey MJ: Diffusion tensor imaging of the pediatric spinal cord at 1.5T: Preliminary results. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 32:339–345, 2011

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Lin X, Tench CR, Turner B, Blumhardt LD, Constantinescu CS: Spinal cord atrophy and disability in multiple sclerosis over four years: Application of a reproducible automated technique in monitoring disease progression in a cohort of the interfere β-1α (Relif) treatment trial. J Neural Neurosurg Psychiatry 74:1090–1094, 2003

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Chris J: Conklin, Devon M. Middleton, Mahdi Alizadeh and et al. spatially selective 2D RF inner field of view (iFOV) diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) of the pediatric spinal cord. NeuroImage: Clinical 11:61–67, 2016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Alizadeh M, Intintolo A, DM Middleton CJ, Conklin SH, Faro MJ, Mulcahey FB: Mohamed. Reduced FOV diffusion tensor MR imaging and fiber tractography of pediatric cervical spinal cord injury. Spinal Cord:1–7, 2016

  27. Proctor MR: Spinal cord injury. Crit Care Med 30(11 Suppl):S489–S499, 2002

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Institute of Neurological Disorders of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01NS079635.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Thomas Jefferson University, 909 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107, USA

    Mahdi Alizadeh

  2. Jefferson Integrated Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, Department of Radiology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Mahdi Alizadeh, Chris J. Conklin, Devon M. Middleton, Sona Saksena, Adam E. Flanders & Feroze B. Mohamed

  3. Department of Radiology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Pallav Shah

  4. Department of Occupational Therapy, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Laura Krisa, MJ Mulcahey & Scott H. Faro

  5. Department of Radiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Scott H. Faro

Authors
  1. Mahdi Alizadeh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Pallav Shah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Chris J. Conklin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Devon M. Middleton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Sona Saksena
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Adam E. Flanders
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Laura Krisa
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. MJ Mulcahey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Scott H. Faro
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Feroze B. Mohamed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mahdi Alizadeh.

Ethics declarations

Subjects and parents provided written information assent and consent of the institutional review board approved protocol

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Alizadeh, M., Shah, P., Conklin, C.J. et al. Application of Color Transformation Techniques in Pediatric Spinal Cord MR Images: Typically Developing and Spinal Cord Injury Population. J Digit Imaging 31, 543–552 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-017-0048-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10278-017-0048-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation