White matter hyperintensity (WMH) shape has been associated with the severity of the underlying brain pathology, suggesting it is a potential neuroimaging marker of WMH impact on brain function.In... Show moreWhite matter hyperintensity (WMH) shape has been associated with the severity of the underlying brain pathology, suggesting it is a potential neuroimaging marker of WMH impact on brain function.In 563 patients with vascular disease (58 +/- 10 years), we examined the relationship between WMH volume, shape, and cognitive functioning. WMH volume and shape were automatically determined on 1.5T brain MRI data. Standardized linear regression analyses estimated the association between WMH volume and shape (concavity index, solidity, convexity, fractal dimension, and eccentricity) and memory and executive functioning, adjusted for age, sex, educational level, and reading ability.Larger WMH volumes were associated with lower executive functioning Z-scores ( b (95%-CI):-0.09 (-0.17;-0.01)). Increased shape complexity of periventricular/confluent WMH associated with lower exec-utive functioning (concavity index + 1SD:-0.13 (-0.20;-0.06); solidity-1SD:-0.09 (-0.17;-0.02)) and lower memory function (fractal dimension + 1SD:-0.10 (-0.18;-0.02)). Of note, the association between concav-ity index and executive functioning was independent of WMH volume (-0.12 (-0.19;-0.04)). Our results suggest that WMH shape contains additional information about WMH burden, not other-wise captured by WMH volume.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ) Show less
We have studied shape with a particular focus on the zebrafish model system. The shape is an essential appearance of the phenotype of a biological specimen and it can be used to read out a... Show moreWe have studied shape with a particular focus on the zebrafish model system. The shape is an essential appearance of the phenotype of a biological specimen and it can be used to read out a current state or response or to study gene expression. So accurate shape analysis requires a precise shape description. Moreover, a sufficiently large sampling size of the specimens is necessary to ensure a justified and unbiased shape analysis. The latter is very important for high-throughput in compound screening. Therefore, top performance in zebrafish analysis requires high-throughput imaging (HTI). To deal with HTI, we aim to design an elaborate and well-performing HTI architecture. For the essential operations we need computational approaches to obtain the 2D/3D shape representations that are precise and yet can be acquired fast. The quality of the obtained shape descriptions will be validated in a straightforward manner with scalar primitives, i.e., the volume and surface area of a 3D shape. These primitives serve as 3D measurements for a robust primary shape assessment in the phenotype characterisation. Using only shape description is not sufficient, e.g., for high-resolution imaging on tissue and cellular level, so texture should be considered to complement and enhance the shape analysis. Show less