Caudate Shape Discrimination in Schizophrenia Using Template-Free Non-parametric Tests

This paper describes shape analysis of the caudate nucleus structure in a large schizophrenia study (30 controls, 60 schizophrenics). Although analysis of the caudate has not drawn the same attention as the hippocampus, it is a key basal ganglia structure shown to present differences in early development (e.g. autism) and also to present changes due to drug treatment. Left and right caudate were segmented from high resolution MRI using a reliable, semi-automated technique. Shapes were parametrized by a surface description, aligned, and finally represented as medial mesh structures (m-reps). Since schizophrenia patients were categorized based on treatment, we could test size and shape differences between normals, atypically and typically treated subjects. Statistical shape analysis used permutation tests on objects represented by medial representations. This allowed us to bypass the common problems of feature reduction inherent to low sample size and high dimensional feature vectors. Mo...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2003
• Where: MICCAI
• Authors: Y. Sampath K. Vetsa, Martin Styner, Stephen M. Pizer, Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Guido Gerig
• Keywords: Medial Shape Representations, Medical Imaging, MICCAI 2003, Shape Analysis, Shape Differences