Automated monitoring of MRI abnormalities in HIV/AIDS

描述（由申请人提供）：神经心理学问题在人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）感染和获得性免疫缺陷综合征（AIDS）中很常见，即使在没有明显可见的大脑病变的情况下也是如此。在许多情况下，这些大脑功能问题的起源被其他问题所混淆，例如药物相互作用，药物滥用或对这种毁灭性疾病的情绪反应。使用手描大脑结构的研究表明，特定的神经心理问题与尾状核体积减少有关。然而，进行这些手动测量所需的专业知识和时间严重限制了它们在临床试验中的应用，并阻止它们在临床实践中使用。该项目的总体目标是开发MRI分析软件，可以自动和准确地量化艾滋病毒/艾滋病患者的大脑结构。该项目的成果将作为临床试验的艾滋病毒图像处理服务和提供艾滋病毒特异性量化的医疗设备软件商业化。在药理学研究环境中，拟议的软件将允许非侵入性监测大脑状态，从而为开发治疗方法以阻止或预防艾滋病痴呆提供客观标准。在临床环境中，该软件提供的大脑定量最终可应用于选择治疗患者和监测治疗。我们的第一个具体目标是优化我们的大脑分割和量化软件与艾滋病毒/艾滋病受试者。我们的第二个目标是优化我们的皮质标记和定量软件与艾滋病毒/艾滋病受试者。我们的第三个目标是开发软件，使用扩散张量成像量化HIV感染受试者正常外观白色物质中的组织特性变化。我们的第四个目标是针对感染艾滋病毒的受试者的“金标准”手动分割方法来验证自动大脑量化软件。这些具体目标的实现将证明自动脑定量软件用于HIV疾病监测的可行性和准确性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Neuropsychological problems are common in Human Immunodeficiency Virus infection (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), even in the absence of clearly visible cerebral lesions. In many cases, the origin of these problems in cerebral function is confounded by other issues, such as medication interactions, substance abuse, or emotional reaction to this devastating illness. Research using hand-delineation of cerebral structures suggests that specific neuropsychological problems are associated with decreased volume of the caudate nucleus. However, the expertise and time required to perform these manual measurements severely limit their application in clinical trials, and prevent them from being used in clinical practice. The overall goal of this project is to develop MRI-analysis software that can automatically and accurately quantify cerebral structures in patients with HIV/AIDS The outcome of this project will be commercialized as an HIV image-processing service for clinical trials and as medical device software providing HIV specific quantification. In a pharmacological research setting, the proposed software will allow non-invasive monitoring of cerebral status, thus providing objective criteria for developing treatment approaches to arrest or prevent AIDS dementia. In the clinical setting, the cerebral quantification provided by this software may eventually be applied to the selection of patients for treatment, and in the monitoring of treatments. Our first specific aim is to optimize our cerebral segmentation and quantification software for subjects with HIV/AIDS. Our second aim is to optimize our cortical labeling and quantification software for subjects with HIV/AIDS. Our third aim is to develop software quantifying tissue property changes in normal appearing white matter of subjects with HIV infection using Diffusion Tensor Imaging. Our fourth aim is to validate the automatic cerebral quantification software against "gold standard" manual segmentation methods in subjects infected with HIV. Fulfillment of these specific aims will demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of automatic cerebral quantification software for HIV disease monitoring.