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Tracking the Development of Baby Brain Tissue with Color Vision in Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Abstract

The brain image segmentation in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is essential to smooth the pathway to the data of outcome measures clinically. This paper proposes a new framework built on graph structure modeling using Brain-delineation Registration through Configuration of Inner Shape for Segmentation (BR-CISS) qualitatively in color channels of Pink, Blue, Green, and Red space (PBGRs) to track the development of baby brain tissue quantitatively in MRI. The BR-CISS starts with the linear intensity normalization for contract augmentation, followed by brain-delineation registration via the inner shape configuration. The next graph structure modeling is to convert registered images into the PBGRs model. In the segmentation process, the minimal mean squared error are used as the color matching criterion to segment white matter (WM) in P channel, gray matter (GM) in B channel, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in G channel, and the background in R channel. In addition, the calculation of actual numbers of voxels quantitatively is accomplished by binary image transformation along with pattern sketch map. The BR-CISS is implemented in the dataset of baby brain MR images during the first 5 years of life. Results show the capability of the proposed framework for both qualitative segmentation and quantitative measures of baby MR brain tissue with graph-based vision in PBGRs. This study found that (a) the sum of WM and GM peaked around about the age of 4; (b) GM peaked around the age of 3; (c) WM kept a steady growth from around the age of 1 thereafter. The proposed BR-CISS is the first study to track the development of baby brain tissue quantitatively jointly with the segmentation of the brain MR images in the PBGRs qualitatively during the first 5 years of life. Taking the advantage of the graph structure modeling with color information in the PBGRs, this study has made the effort in the direction for providing some new insight into the maturation of the WM, the GM, and the CSF patterns graphically in the early life in the brain MR images.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to express thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their time, valuable comments, and useful suggestions for the improvement of this manuscript.

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    Peifang Guo

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Guo, P. Tracking the Development of Baby Brain Tissue with Color Vision in Magnetic Resonance Imaging. SN COMPUT. SCI. 3, 266 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-022-01151-8

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