Marschallinger, Robert and Schmidt, Paul and Hofmann, Peter and Zimmer, Claus and Atkinson, Peter Michael and Sellner, Johann and Trinker, Eugen and Mühlau, Mark (2016) A MS-lesion pattern discrimination plot based on geostatistics. Brain and Behavior, 6 (3). ISSN 2162-3279
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Abstract
Introduction A geostatistical approach to characterize MS-lesion patterns based on their geometrical properties is presented. Methods A dataset of 259 binary MS-lesion masks in MNI space was subjected to directional variography. A model function was fit to express the observed spatial variability in x, y, z directions by the geostatistical parameters Range and Sill. Results Parameters Range and Sill correlate with MS-lesion pattern surface complexity and total lesion volume. A scatter plot of ln(Range) versus ln(Sill), classified by pattern anisotropy, enables a consistent and clearly arranged presentation of MS-lesion patterns based on geometry: the so-called MS-Lesion Pattern Discrimination Plot. Conclusions The geostatistical approach and the graphical representation of results are considered efficient exploratory data analysis tools for cross-sectional, follow-up, and medication impact analysis.