Introduction:

Due to the need for an early diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders, attempts have been made to harmonize diagnostic criteria using morphometric methods based on neuroimaging techniques, but conclusive results have not yet been obtained.

Objective:

To determine the ventricular volume due to its wide use as a marker of cerebral atrophy and to identify the effect of sex on these structures, according to the type of skull, estimated from multislice computed tomography imaging techniques.

Methods:

An observational and descriptive study was developed in 30 subjects with normal neurocognitive functions and neuropsychiatric examination, aged between 45 and 54 years, who underwent a simple multislice CT scan of the skull. An image segmentation method based on homogeneity was used.

Results:

The ventricular volumes showed a significant and positive correlation between them, except between the third and fourth ventricles and the third and the right ventricular volume. The statistics in the multivariate linear model applied showed that they were only significant in terms of sex and type of skull. No significant differences were found regarding sex in any volume except in the third ventricle (p= 0.01). The same occurred by type of skull (p= 0.005).

Conclusions:

The morphometry method of the encephalic ventricular system from Computed Tomography images / Segmentation by homogeneity, allowed to quantify the cerebral volumetric changes associated with normal aging and can be used as a biomarker of the relationship between brain structure and cognitive functions.

        · abstract in English     · text in English     · English ( pdf )