3D texture analysis on MRI images of Alzheimer’s disease

This study investigated three-dimensional (3D) texture as a possible diagnostic marker of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images were obtained from 17 AD patients and 17 age and gender-matched healthy controls. 3D texture features were extracted from the circular 3D ROIs placed using a semi-automated technique in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. We found that classification accuracies based on texture analysis of the ROIs varied from 64.3% to 96.4% due to different ROI selection, feature extraction and selection options, and that most 3D texture features selected were correlated with the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scores. The results indicated that 3D texture could detect the subtle texture differences between tissues in AD patients and normal controls, and texture features of MR images in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex might be related to the severity of AD cognitive impairment. These results suggest that 3D texture might be a useful aid in AD diagnosis.