Quantitative assessment of myelination from MR of term- and pre-term neonates: experimental set-up and neuroradiological results from histogram-based classification

Myelination of pre-term and term infants was analysed quantitatively by trained classification on pairs of axial proton-density and T2 weighted MR images. The validity of the quantitative results was checked by classifying three studies from healthy neonates. Histogram-based cluster analysis was carried out repeatedly by a radiologist and a pediatrician using the MrX software. Its manual correction was confirmed by a senior neuroradiologist. Evaluation of the results indicated that myelinated white matter required manual post-processing while unmyelinated white matter did not. Applying the approach to 11 studies of pre-term and term neonates revealed that there appears to be no quantitative difference in intra- and extra-uterine myelination. (author)