White matter hyperintensities volume and cognition: Assessment of a deep learning based lesion detection and quantification algorithm on the Alzheimers Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
This study provides a more accurate assessment of the link between WMH and cognitive decline, which is important for researchers studying neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's.
This paper investigates the relationship between white matter hyperintensities (WMH) volume and cognitive performance using a deep learning algorithm, StackGen-Net, for WMH segmentation. They found that larger WMH volumes correlated with worse performance in executive function (P=.004), memory (P=.01), and language (P=.005) in a cohort of 290 subjects.
The relationship between cognition and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) volumes often depends on the accuracy of the lesion segmentation algorithm used. As such, accurate detection and quantification of WMH is of great interest. Here, we use a deep learning-based WMH segmentation algorithm, StackGen-Net, to detect and quantify WMH on 3D FLAIR volumes from ADNI. We used a subset of subjects (n=20) and obtained manual WMH segmentations by an experienced neuro-radiologist to demonstrate the accuracy of our algorithm. On a larger cohort of subjects (n=290), we observed that larger WMH volumes correlated with worse performance on executive function (P=.004), memory (P=.01), and language (P=.005).