Patent Document ID: 8112144
Application ID: 12295261
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A cerebral atrophy assessment device, comprising: acquisition means for acquiring a slice image of a head portion, said acquisition means comprising a nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device; volume calculation means for calculating a numerical value representing a volume of a tissue or a region in said head portion based on intensities of pixels constituting the slice image acquired by said acquisition means; assessment means for assessing cerebral atrophy in said head portion from one or more numerical values calculated by said volume calculation means on a basis of preset assessment criteria; and output means for outputting information indicating an assessment result according to said assessment means; wherein said volume calculation means calculates a numerical value representing a brain volume comprising at least one of a volume of grey matter and a volume of white matter of said head portion, and based on the intensities of pixels constituting said slice image acquired by said acquisition means, calculates a shape of at least one of the grey matter and the white matter of said head portion, and calculates a convex hull of said shape to calculate a numerical value representing a volume of said convex hull, and said assessment means calculates a value of a first ratio between the numerical value representing the volume of said convex hull and the numerical value representing said brain volume and assesses said cerebral atrophy from the value of said first ratio.