| Abstract | The article describes the methodology for volumetric analyses of brain volumes in vivo by structural magnetic resonance imaging, and assesses the reliability and validity of the volumetric technique. Patients were recruited for magnetic resonance imaging as part of a wider project studying biological determinants of psychosis. Volumetric analysis of brain scans was performed blind using a rapid automated in-house software package to remove non-brain elements (scalp-editing), and to calculate volumes of the whole brain, lateral ventricles, cerebrospinal fluid, and cortical gray and white matter compartments. Quantitative analyses of each magnetic resonance imaging scan took approximately 45 minutes for each patient (between-group results will be reported later). Test-retest reliability for 20 percent of scans selected at random was generally high. Spearman's rank correlation coefficient (rho) for whole brain was 0.99, grey matter was 0.79, white matter was 0.86, cerebrospinal fluid and sulcal compartment was 0.83 and lateral ventricle was 0.86. This method is reliable, valid, and fast for the purpose of quantification of cerebral morphology on magnetic resonance imaging scans. |
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