A Software Platform to Analyze MR Images based on 3D Fractal Dimension - Application in Neurodegenerative Diseases

Previous studies carried out by our group have demonstrated that 3D fractal dimension algorithms detect changes in apparently normal magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain in patients suffering early stages of Multiple Sclerosis. In addition, 3D fractal dimension has also been demonstrated to be useful for detecting brain abnormalities in other cerebral diseases, as in Alzheimer’s disease and in children born after intrauterine growth restriction. Thus, 3D fractal dimension detection has been proposed as a valuable and powerful diagnostic tool. To our knowledge, no user-friendly software is available to obtain the 3D fractal dimension of volumetric MR images. In this paper, we present an optimized Web platform that allows computing the 3D fractal dimension value for uploaded MR images in an interactive user-friendly way. Moreover, and because the computational cost of the involved algorithms is very high for interactive use, we have focused our efforts on the optimization of the appropriate algorithms using the parallel computing power of current GPUs and multi-core CPUs.

[1]  D R Fish,et al.  Three-dimensional fractal analysis of the white matter surface from magnetic resonance images of the human brain. , 1996, Cerebral cortex.

[2]  David P. Luebke,et al.  CUDA: Scalable parallel programming for high-performance scientific computing , 2008, 2008 5th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging: From Nano to Macro.

[3]  M Filippi,et al.  Comparison of MS clinical phenotypes using conventional and magnetization transfer MRI , 1999, Neurology.

[4]  Gabriel B. Mindlin,et al.  An efficient algorithm for fast O(N*ln(N)) box counting , 1990 .

[5]  A. Toga,et al.  Three-Dimensional Statistical Analysis of Sulcal Variability in the Human Brain , 1996, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[6]  Pablo Villoslada,et al.  Fractal-dimension analysis detects cerebral changes in preterm infants with and without intrauterine growth restriction , 2010, NeuroImage.

[7]  Jong-Min Lee,et al.  Fractal dimension of cerebral cortical surface in schizophrenia and obsessive–compulsive disorder , 2005, Neuroscience Letters.

[8]  Benoit B. Mandelbrot,et al.  Fractal Geometry of Nature , 1984 .

[9]  Justin P. Haldar,et al.  Accelerating advanced MRI reconstructions on GPUs , 2008, J. Parallel Distributed Comput..

[10]  Joaquín Goñi,et al.  Fractal dimension analysis of grey matter in multiple sclerosis , 2009, Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

[11]  Bruce J. West,et al.  Physiology in fractal dimensions: Error tolerance , 2006, Annals of Biomedical Engineering.

[12]  Pablo Villoslada,et al.  UJA-3DFD: A program to compute the 3D fractal dimension from MRI data , 2011, Comput. Methods Programs Biomed..

[13]  Guang H. Yue,et al.  Fractal dimension assessment of brain white matter structural complexity post stroke in relation to upper-extremity motor function , 2008, Brain Research.

[14]  Attila Kuba,et al.  A Parallel 3D 12-Subiteration Thinning Algorithm , 1999, Graph. Model. Image Process..

[15]  Jens H. Krüger,et al.  A Survey of General‐Purpose Computation on Graphics Hardware , 2007, Eurographics.

[16]  Yue Zhao,et al.  High-Performance and Real-Time Volume Rendering in CUDA , 2009, 2009 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Informatics.

[17]  William E. Lorensen,et al.  Marching cubes: A high resolution 3D surface construction algorithm , 1987, SIGGRAPH.

[18]  Jing Z. Liu,et al.  Fractal dimension in human cerebellum measured by magnetic resonance imaging. , 2003, Biophysical journal.

[19]  Dorothee P. Auer,et al.  Is the brain cortex a fractal? , 2003, NeuroImage.

[20]  Klaus Mueller,et al.  IOP PUBLISHING PHYSICS IN MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY , 2007 .

[21]  Joaquín Goñi,et al.  Fractal dimension and white matter changes in multiple sclerosis , 2007, NeuroImage.

[22]  Deborah Silver,et al.  Curve-Skeleton Properties, Applications, and Algorithms , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[23]  Yasuyo Kita,et al.  A survey of medical applications of 3D image analysis and computer graphics , 2006, Systems and Computers in Japan.

[24]  Zhang Fan,et al.  Real-time Medical Image Volume Rendering Based on GPU Accelerated Method , 2008, 2008 International Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Design.

[25]  Jing Z. Liu,et al.  A three-dimensional fractal analysis method for quantifying white matter structure in human brain , 2006, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[26]  Guang H. Yue,et al.  Quantifying degeneration of white matter in normal aging using fractal dimension , 2007, Neurobiology of Aging.

[27]  H F Jelinek,et al.  Use of fractal theory in neuroscience: methods, advantages, and potential problems. , 2001, Methods.