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Many neurological disorders produce regional brain atrophy that can bedetected with MRI scanning. CorTechs' NeuroQuant(TM) image analysis system isthe first practical solution for accurately quantifying such changes inclinical settings. Neurologists, neuroradiologists, and other experts in thediagnosis and treatment of CNS disorders will be able to use this product toderive information that may help them to monitor disease processes inindividual patients. According to James Brewer, MD, PhD, a neurologist at theUniversity of California, San Diego who studies how the brain changes inAlzheimer's disease: "There is a great deal of scientific evidence that brainstructures such as the hippocampus begin to atrophy in the early stages ofdementia. Reliably characterizing such changes based on MRI data requires useof quantitative techniques, but previous methods for deriving numericalinformation from MRI scans have been too slow and cumbersome for use outsideof research studies. By post-processing MRI data with NeuroQuant(TM) we cannow routinely consider quantitative information about the extent andprogression of atrophy in a patient's brain when evaluating treatmentoptions." NeuroQuant(TM) can also be used as an efficient means for derivingquantitative imaging biomarkers in clinical trial research.
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CorTechs President, Michael E. Smith, PhD, highlights the technicalachievement that NeuroQuant(TM) represents: "CorTechs' outstanding engineeringteam and affiliated researchers have developed a powerful pipeline ofsophisticated analysis processes that can quantify MRIs without humanintervention. These techniques first minimize scanner image-acquisitionartifacts that have traditionally been a barrier to standardized, automatedMRI analysis. Intelligent image analysis and feature extraction methods arethen used to recognize anatomical structures in the data that are widely knownto atrophy in some diseases. Numerical information about the sizes of suchstructures is extracted from the images and provided to the referringphysician in the form of a convenient and easy-to-read report, with valuesthat can be immediately compared to age-appropriate normative data."
NeuroQuant(TM) has received 510(k) clearance from the FDA for marketing asa medical device "intended for automatic labeling, visualization andvolumetric quantification of segmentable brain structures from a set of MRimages". It can receive MRI scans routed from a scanner or Picture-Archivingand Communication System (PACS) as input and can automatically returnage-related atrophy reports and numerical and color-blended anatomical volumesannotated with graphical overlays to most DICOM-compliant PACS viewers orthird-party workstations. NeuroQuant(TM) can be configured to provideautomated MRI quantification solutions that meet the needs of independenthealthcare providers, imaging centers, and large enterprises conductingmulti-site clinical trials.
About CorTechs Labs, Inc.
The scientists, engineers, business professionals, and clinicalspecialists at CorTechs Labs, Inc. are dedicated to creating advanced medicalimage analysis solutions for measuring the structure and function of the humanbrain. CorTechs is translating progress in neuroimaging research intopractical clinical software tools for quantitative neuroradiology that mayimprove care of the millions of people worldwide who suffer fromneurodegenerative disor
