Lesion comparison of multiple sclerosis in hispanic and caucasian patients utilizing an imaging informatics-based eFolder system

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease in the central nervous system. Genetics have been considered as a leading factor in the prevalence and disease course of MS. We have presented an informatics-based eFolder system for integrating patients' clinical data with MR images and lesion quantification results. The completed eFolder system has been designed and developed in aiding to evaluate disease manifestation differences in Hispanic and Caucasian MS patients. MS lesion data, as shown in MRI, can be extracted by the 3-D automatic lesion detection tool in the eFolder, and data storing and mining tools in eFolder is able to extract and compare data from individual patients. The computer-aided detection (CAD) algorithm has been modified and enhanced to include spatial information as detection criteria. For this study, 36 Caucasian MS patients and 36 matched Hispanic patients have been selected. Most recent MR images of the patients are collected, and images are evaluated both by the CAD tool in the eFolder and radiologists. The results are compared between Caucasian and Hispanic patients and statistically evaluated to see if the two populations have significant difference in lesion presentations. The results can be used to evaluate differences in the two groups of patients and to evaluate the new CAD algorithm's performance with radiologists' contours. Significant findings can further evaluate effectiveness of MS eFolder in MS-related research.