TY - JOUR T1 - Automatic Voxel-Based Morphometry of Structural MRI by SPM8 plus Diffeomorphic Anatomic Registration Through Exponentiated Lie Algebra Improves the Diagnosis of Probable Alzheimer Disease JF - American Journal of Neuroradiology JO - Am. J. Neuroradiol. DO - 10.3174/ajnr.A2935 AU - H. Matsuda AU - S. Mizumura AU - K. Nemoto AU - F. Yamashita AU - E. Imabayashi AU - N. Sato AU - T. Asada Y1 - 2012/02/02 UR - http://www.ajnr.org/content/early/2012/02/02/ajnr.A2935.abstract N2 - BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The necessity for structural MRI is greater than ever to both diagnose AD in its early stage and objectively evaluate its progression. We propose a new VBM-based software program for automatic detection of early specific atrophy in AD. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A target VOI was determined by group comparison of 30 patients with very mild AD and 40 age-matched healthy controls by using SPM. Then this target VOI was incorporated into a newly developed automated software program independently running on a Windows PC for VBM by using SPM8 plus DARTEL. ROC analysis was performed for discrimination of 116 other patients with AD with very mild stage (n = 45), mild stage (n = 30) and moderate-to-advanced stages (n = 41) from 40 other age-matched healthy controls by using a z score map in the target VOI. RESULTS: Medial temporal structures involving the entire region of the entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, and amygdala showed significant atrophy in the patients with very mild AD and were determined as a target VOI. When we used the severity score of atrophy in this target VOI, 91.6%, 95.8%, and 98.2% accuracies were obtained in the very mild AD, mild AD, and moderate-to-severe AD groups, respectively. In the very mild AD group, a high specificity of 97.5% with a sensitivity of 86.4% was obtained, and age at onset of AD did not influence this accuracy. CONCLUSIONS: This software program with application of SPM8 plus DARTEL to VBM provides a high performance for AD diagnosis by using MRI. Abbreviations ADAlzheimer diseaseDARTELdiffeomorphic anatomical registration through exponentiated lie algebraFWHMfull width at half maximumMCImild cognitive impairmentMMSEMini-Mental State ExaminationROCreceiver operating characteristic analysisSPMstatistical parametric mappingVBMvoxel-based morphometry ER -