Association of white matter hyperintensities volume and cognitive function: semi-automatic volumetric measurement

Background and purpose: Detection of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) by using visual rating scales or manual volumetric measurements are problematic, because both methods rely heavily on the human eye and are hampered by floor and ceiling effects to detect changes in the cerebral white matter. Especially visual rating scales describe WMH in a qualitative or semi-quantitative way. Hence, intra- and interrater reliability is usually modest to low as previous studies have shown. Our first purpose was to evaluate the clinical acceptability of a new semi-automated volumetric method (QBrain®; Medis Medical Imaging…