A concept for holistic whole body MRI data analysis, Imiomics

作者：Strand Robin; Malmberg Filip; Johansson Lars; Lind Lars; Sundbom Magnus; Ahlstrom Hakan; Kullberg Joel

来源：PLos One, 2017, 12(2): e0169966.

DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0169966

Purpose
To present and evaluate a whole-body image analysis concept, Imiomics (imaging omics) and an image registration method that enables Imiomics analyses by deforming all image data to a common coordinate system, so that the information in each voxel can be compared between persons or within a person over time and integrated with non-imaging data.
Methods
The presented image registration method utilizes relative elasticity constraints of different tissue obtained from whole-body water-fat MRI. The registration method is evaluated by inverse consistency and Dice coefficients and the Imiomics concept is evaluated by example analyses of importance for metabolic research using non-imaging parameters where we know what to expect. The example analyses include whole body imaging atlas creation, anomaly detection, and cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis.
Results
The image registration method evaluation on 128 subjects shows low inverse consistency errors and high Dice coefficients. Also, the statistical atlas with fat content intensity values shows low standard deviation values, indicating successful deformations to the common coordinate system. The example analyses show expected associations and correlations which agree with explicit measurements, and thereby illustrate the usefulness of the proposed Imiomics concept.
Conclusions
The registration method is well-suited for Imiomics analyses, which enable analyses of relationships to non-imaging data, e.g. clinical data, in new types of holistic targeted and untargeted big-data analysis.

• 出版日期2017-2-27