Objective analysis of medical image data for white matter abnormality

Abstract

A system for objectively analyzing medical image data for the presence of diffuse white matter abnormalities (DWMA) is configured to identify and determine DWMA characteristics that are not visually apparent. As compared to subjective visual diagnosis, objectively determined DWMA characteristics may be automatically compared to each other, and may be compared to and associated with various scales, evaluations, or other assessment criteria used to measure aspects of infant development. As a result, the disclosed system may objectively determine an impact that objectively determined DWMA characteristics will have on one or more developmental scales, which can be expressed as a time deficit, score deficit, or other value indicative of development deficits. The system may be integrated with medical imaging devices to provide near-immediate objective analysis for developmental impact at the point of care and in parallel with conventional imaging tasks, or may provide objective analysis results via a software interface.