FRACTAL DIMENSION IN HUMAN CEREBELLUM MEASURED BY MRI

这个子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供的资源的许多研究子项目之一。子项目和调查员(PI)可能从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可能会出现在其他CRISE条目中。列出的机构是针对中心的，而不一定是针对调查员的机构。在生物学和医学中，分维被用来量化各种物体的结构。在这项研究中，我们将使用磁共振小脑图像来测量人类小脑的分维。覆盖整个CB的高分辨率冠状MRI脑图像将来自健康成人受试者和白质疾病(自闭症、多发性硬化症等)患者。CB图像将被重新采样为一系列具有不同三维分辨率的图像集。在每个分辨率下，将获得CB白质的骨架，并将确定属于该骨架的像素数。采用计盒方法计算CB骨架的分维值。将正常受试者组和患者组之间的分维进行比较，以量化结构的变化。分维可以用来定量反映发育、退行性、病变期和进化期CB的结构复杂性和形态计量学变化。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Fractal dimension has been used to quantify the structures of a wide range of objects in biology and medicine. In this study we will measure the fractal dimension (FD) of human cerebellum (CB) using MR CB images. High resolution coronal MRI brain images covering the whole CB will be collected from healthy adult subjects and patients with white matter diseases (AUTISM, MS, etc.) CB images will be resampled to a series of image sets with different three-dimensional resolutions. At each resolution, the skeleton of the CB white matter will be obtained and the number of pixels belonging to the skeleton will be determined. Fractal dimension of the CB skeleton will be calculated using the box-counting method. Fractal dimension will be compared between the normal subjects group and patients group to quantify the structure changes. The fractal dimension may serve as a quantitative index for structural complexity and morphometric changes of the CB at its developmental, degenerative, diseased or evolutional stages.