RESEARCH ARTICLE
A segmentation-based volumetric approach to localize and quantify cerebral vasospasm based on tomographic imaging data Axel Neulen1*, Tobias Pantel1, Michael Kosterhon1, Stefanie Kirschner2, Marc A. Brockmann2, Sven R. Kantelhardt1, Alf Giese1, Serge C. Thal3* 1 Department of Neurosurgery, University Medical Center of Mainz, Mainz, Germany, 2 Department of Neuroradiology, University Medical Center of Mainz, Mainz, Germany, 3 Department of Anesthesiology, University Medical Center of Mainz, Mainz, Germany
a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111
*
[email protected] (AN);
[email protected] (SCT)
Abstract Introduction
OPEN ACCESS Citation: Neulen A, Pantel T, Kosterhon M, Kirschner S, Brockmann MA, Kantelhardt SR, et al. (2017) A segmentation-based volumetric approach to localize and quantify cerebral vasospasm based on tomographic imaging data. PLoS ONE 12(2): e0172010. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0172010 Editor: Nima Etminan, Heinrich-Heine-Universitat Dusseldorf, GERMANY Received: June 30, 2016 Accepted: January 30, 2017 Published: February 15, 2017 Copyright: © 2017 Neulen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are within the paper. Funding: The study was supported by the Friedhelm Frees Stiftung (http://www.unimedizinmainz.de/friedhelmfreesstiftung/) and by the Stiftung Neurochirurgische Forschung (http:// www.dgnc.de/mitgliederbereich/stipendienstiftungen/stiftungen/neurochirurgische-forschung/ stiftung.html) (grants to A.N.). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis,
Quantification of cerebral vasospasm after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is crucial in animal studies as well as clinical routine. We have developed a method for computer-based volumetric assessment of intracranial blood vessels from cross-sectional imaging data. Here we demonstrate the quantification of vasospasm from micro computed tomography (micro-CT) data in a rodent SAH model and the transferability of the volumetric approach to clinical data.
Methods We obtained rodent data by performing an ex vivo micro-CT of murine brains after sham surgery or SAH by endovascular filament perforation on day 3 post hemorrhage. Clinical CT angiography (CTA) was performed for diagnostic reasons unrelated to this study. We digitally reconstructed and segmented intracranial vascular trees, followed by calculating volumes of defined vessel segments by standardized protocols using Amira® software.
Results SAH animals demonstrated significantly smaller vessel diameters compared with sham (MCA: 134.4±26.9μm vs.165.0±18.7μm, p
