A method useful in diagnosing normal pressure hydrocephalus and monitoring treatment is presented. A database of mean brain diffusion constants and distribution width is created. Three-dimensional diffusion images of the subject are obtained and algorithms are applied to the images, which include reducing the three-dimensional images to one-dimensional maps of the average diffusion content for the entire brain. Distribution maps (diffusion histograms) are obtained for the brain, and the histograms are fit to a model. From the fit are obtained a mean brain diffusion constant, which is characteristic of the diffusion of the brain tissue in the three compartment model, and a distribution width for the tissue. These numbers are compared to the database for normals, and the significant deviation from the normals (higher in the case of mean brain diffusion constant and wider in the case of distribution width) is an indicator of the presence of normal pressure hydrocephalus.
Diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus by automated processing of MR images