Validation and comparison of two automated methods for quantifying brain white matter hyperintensities of presumed vascular origin

OBJECTIVES: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are a common imaging finding indicative of cerebral small vessel disease. Lesion segmentation algorithms have been developed to overcome issues arising from visual rating scales. In this study, we evaluated two automated methods and compared them to visual and manual segmentation to determine the most robust algorithm provided by the open-source Lesion Segmentation Toolbox (LST). METHODS: We compared WMH data from visual ratings (Scheltens’ scale) with those derived from algorithms provided within LST. We then compared spatial and volumetric WMH data derived from manually-delineated lesion maps with WMH data and lesion maps provided by the LST algorithms. RESULTS: We identified optimal initial thresholds for algorithms provided by LST compared with visual ratings (Lesion Growth Algorithm (LGA): initial κ and lesion probability thresholds, 0.5; Lesion Probability Algorithm (LPA) lesion probability threshold, 0.65). LGA was found to perform better then LPA compared with manual segmentation. CONCLUSION: LGA appeared to be the most suitable algorithm for quantifying WMH in relation to cerebral small vessel disease, compared with Scheltens’ score and manual segmentation. LGA offers a user-friendly, effective WMH segmentation method in the research environment.