Partial volume estimation in brain MRI revisited.

We propose a fast algorithm to estimate brain tissue concentrations from conventional T1-weighted images based on a Bayesian maximum a posteriori formulation that extends the "mixel" model developed in the 90's. A key observation is the necessity to incorporate additional prior constraints to the "mixel" model for the estimation of plausible concentration maps. Experiments on the ADNI standardized dataset show that global and local brain atrophy measures from the proposed algorithm yield enhanced diagnosis testing value than with several widely used soft tissue labeling methods.