Fractal dimension analysis of cerebellar grey matter in patients with Chiary Malformation type-I

Abstract

Chiari Malformation type I (CM-I), which is described as the elongation of cerebellar tonsils below the foramen magnum through the spinal canal, is a serious congenital or acquired neurological disorder. The purpose of the present study is to implement a fractal analysis using a single midline sagittal Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data to evaluate the morphological properties of cerebellar grey matter (GM) in CM-I patients. Therefore, MRI images of 17 patients and 16 healthy subjects were employed to determine the fractal dimension values of cerebellar GM. A custom built graphical user interface (GUI) program developed by MATLAB was used to manually extract the cerebellum to create binary masks. Methods of SPM software package were used to segment the GM from the whole image. With the help of binary cerebellar mask, cerebellar GM data were obtained. Finally, estimation of FD and area values for the segmented GM data were performed. The results indicated that FD values for cerebellar GM in patients with CM-I was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in comparison with those in control group. These findings suggest that FD values estimated for cerebellar GM tissue can serve as a useful marker, a discriminative and descriptive feature to investigate the abnormalities and irregularities in the cerebellum of patients with CM-I.