A fully automated approach involving neuroimaging and deep learning for Parkinson’s disease detection and severity prediction

Three-dimensional magnetic resonance imaging has been proved to detect and predict the severity of progressive neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. The application of pre-processing with neuroimaging methods plays a vital role in post-processing for these problems. The development of technology over the years has enabled the use of deep learning methods such as convolutional neural networks (CNN) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) . In this study, the detection of Parkinson’s disease and the prediction of disease severity were studied with 2D and 3D CNN using T1-weighted MRIs that were pre-processed with FLIRT image registration and BET non-brain tissue scraper. For 2D CNN, the median slices of the MR images in the sagittal, coronal, and axial planes were used separately and in combination. In addition, the whole brain for 3D CNN has been downsized. Considering the performance of the proposed methods, the highest results achieved for detecting Parkinson’s disease were measured as 0.9620, 0.9452, 0.9407, and 0.9536 for Accuracy, F1 score, precision, and Recall, respectively. The highest result achieved for estimating the severity of Parkinson’s disease was that 3D CNN was fed three times with a downsized whole MRI, which were measured for R, and R(2) as 0.9150 and 0.8372, respectively. When the results obtained with the methods suggested within the scope of the study were examined, it was observed that the applied methods yielded promising performance.