Edge-based partial volume averaging estimation for FLAIR MRI with white matter lesions.

Through the combination of intensity and fuzzy edge strength measures, a new partial volume averaging (PVA) quantification technique for FLAIR MRI with white matter lesions (WML) is developed. It is focused on an edge-based approach, which "probes" for PVA voxels via a global estimate for the change in the proportion of tissues α'. This estimate is refined according to a probabilistic threshold, and the result is decoded to find the proportion of tissues fraction α - the percentage of one tissue found in a mixture voxel. The results from several images are shown illustrating how the technique may be used to segment PVA and pure tissue classes. The result is a non-model based approach to the detection and quantification of PVA.