A new method of analysing the intracerebral haemorrhage signal intensity on brain MRI images using frequency domain techniques

Abstract

Diffusion Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DW-MRI) has become an established part of neuroimaging and is used to diagnose and characterize several neurologic disorders. Intracerebral Haemorrhage (ICH) is a severe medical condition, which may develop quickly into a life-threatening situation, and thereby requires prompt medical attention. Early and reliable identification of the age of haemorrhage is essential when choosing the correct treatment, and estimating patient’s diagnosis and outcome. Diffusion Weighted (DW) images presents a variation in the image signal intensity characteristics relative to the different stages of ICH. In the present paper, an effort is made to document the variation in the image signal intensity characteristics of ICH at evolving stages, for 30 subjects, using High Frequency Power (HFP) parameter. Results showed that the difference in the HFP values on DW images for the subjects with ICH com- pared to their contralateral normal hemisphere, were highly significant (p < 0.01) in areas of the brain, where there was a high incidence of ICH. The relative in- crease in the image signal intensity HFP values (RHFP) for the subjects with ICH were in the range of (31.0 - 2477.32) times compared to their corresponding HFP values on the contralateral normal hemisphere. The observed RHFP values were elevated in Stage 1 (Hy- peracute: <1 day) of ICH and further progressively decreased in Stage 2 (Acute: 1 - 7 days) and Stage 3 (Late subacute: 7 - 14 days), and eventually reached their minimum in Stage 4 (Chronic: >14 days). There was a negative correlation (r = ? 0.81) observed between the RHFP values and the evolving stages of ICH. The results indicate that the quantitative changes in the RHFP values can be assessed to derive information about the stage of ICH, and their adoption in clinical diagnosis and treatment could be helpful and informative.