A Structural Graph-Based Method for MRI Analysis
This work addresses the need for robust automatic techniques to aid in pediatric MRI analysis, which is currently manual and error-prone, but it is incremental as it builds on existing graph-based methods for a specific domain.
The paper tackles the challenge of pediatric MRI analysis, which is difficult due to anatomical changes and motion artifacts, by developing a structural graph-based method and reports preliminary results showing its viability on liver MRI sequences from one patient.
The importance of imaging exams, such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), for the diagnostic and follow-up of pediatric pathologies and the assessment of anatomical structures' development has been increasingly highlighted in recent times. Manual analysis of MRIs is time-consuming, subjective, and requires significant expertise. To mitigate this, automatic techniques are necessary. Most techniques focus on adult subjects, while pediatric MRI has specific challenges such as the ongoing anatomical and histological changes related to normal development of the organs, reduced signal-to-noise ratio due to the smaller bodies, motion artifacts and cooperation issues, especially in long exams, which can in many cases preclude common analysis methods developed for use in adults. Therefore, the development of a robust technique to aid in pediatric MRI analysis is necessary. This paper presents the current development of a new method based on the learning and matching of structural relational graphs (SRGs). The experiments were performed on liver MRI sequences of one patient from ICr-HC-FMUSP, and preliminary results showcased the viability of the project. Future experiments are expected to culminate with an application for pediatric liver substructure and brain tumor segmentation.