Computer based classification of MR scans in first time applicant Alzheimer patients

Abstract

In this study we aimed to classify MR images for recognizing Alzheimer Disease (AD) in a group of patients who were recently diagnosed by clinical history and neuropsychiatric exams by using non-biased machine-learning techniques. T1 weighted MRI scans of 31 patients with probable AD and 31 age- and gender-matched cognitively normal elderly were analyzed with voxel-based morphometry and classified by support vector machine (SVM) a machine learning technique. SVM could differentiate patients from controls with accuracy of 74 % (sensitivity: 70 % and specificity: 77 %) when the whole brain was included the analyses. The classification accuracy was increased to 79 % (sensitivity: 65 % and specificity: 93 %) when the analyses restricted to hippocampus. Our results showed that SVM is a promising tool for diagnosis of AD but needed to be improved. © 2012 Bentham Science Publishers. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., MEDLINE® is the source for the MeSH terms of this document.