Cette thèse contribue au manque d'outils informatiques pour l'analyse d'images médicales et le diagnostic, en particulier en ce qui concerne l'étude des volumes du liquide cérébrospinal. La première partie concerne la mesure du volume des compartiments du liquide à partir d'images corps entier, pour une population composée d'adultes sains et de patients atteints d'hydrocéphalie. Les images sont obtenues à partir d'une séquence IRM développée récemment et mettant en évidence le liquide par rapport aux structures voisines, de manière à faciliter sa segmentation. Nous proposons une méthode automatique de segmentation et de séparation des volumes permettant une quantification efficace et reproductible. Le ratio des volumes des compartiments sous-arachnoïdien et ventriculaire est constant chez l'adulte sain, ce qui permet de conserver une pression intracrânienne stable. En revanche, il diminue et varie fortement chez les patients atteints d'hydrocéphalie. Ce ratio fournit un index physiologique fiable pour l'aide au diagnostic de la maladie. La seconde partie de la thèse est consacrée à l'analyse de la distribution du liquide dans le compartiment sous-arachnoïdien intracrânial supérieur. Il convient de souligner que ce compartiment, particulièrement complexe d'un point de vue anatomique, demeure peu étudié. Nous proposons deux techniques de visualisation de la distribution du volume liquidien contenu dans ce compartiment, qui produisent des images bidimensionnelles à partir des images d'origine. Ces images permettent de caractériser la distribution du volume liquidien et de son réseau, tout en distinguant les adultes sains des patients souffrant d'hydrocéphalie / This work aims to contribute to the lack of computational methods for medical image analysis and diagnosis about the study of cerebrospinal fluid volumes. In the first part, we focus on the volume assessment of the fluid spaces, from whole body images, in a population consisting of healthy adults and hydrocephalus patients. To help segmentation, these images, obtained from a recent "tissue-specific" magnetic resonance imaging sequence, highlight cerebrospinal fluid unlike its neigh borhood structures. We propose automatic segmentation and separation methods of the different spaces, which allow efficient and reproducible quantification. We show that the ratio of the total subarachnoid space volume to the ventricular one is a proportionality constant for healthy adults, to support a stable intracranial pressure. However, this ratio decreases and varies significantly among patients suffering from hydrocephalus. This ratio provides a reliable physiological index to help in the diagnosis of hydrocephalus. The second part of this work is dedicated to the fluid volume distribution analysis within the superior cortical subarachnoid space. Anatomical complexity of this space induces that it remains poorly studied. We propose two complementary methods to visualize the fluid volume distribution, and which both produce two-dimensional images from the original ones. These images, called relief maps, are used to characterize respectively, the fluid volume distribution and the fluid network, to classify healthy adults and patients with hydrocephalus, and to perform patient monitoring before and after surgery

This work aims to contribute to the lack of computational methods for medical image analysis and diagnosis about the study of cerebrospinal fluid volumes. In the first part, we focus on the volume assessment of the fluid spaces, from whole body images, in a population consisting of healthy adults and hydrocephalus patients. To help segmentation, these images, obtained from a recent "tissue-specific" magnetic resonance imaging sequence, highlight cerebrospinal fluid unlike its neigh borhood structures. We propose automatic segmentation and separation methods of the different spaces, which allow efficient and reproducible quantification. We show that the ratio of the total subarachnoid space volume to the ventricular one is a proportionality constant for healthy adults, to support a stable intracranial pressure. However, this ratio decreases and varies significantly among patients suffering from hydrocephalus. This ratio provides a reliable physiological index to help in the diagnosis of hydrocephalus. The second part of this work is dedicated to the fluid volume distribution analysis within the superior cortical subarachnoid space. Anatomical complexity of this space induces that it remains poorly studied. We propose two complementary methods to visualize the fluid volume distribution, and which both produce two-dimensional images from the original ones. These images, called relief maps, are used to characterize respectively, the fluid volume distribution and the fluid network, to classify healthy adults and patients with hydrocephalus, and to perform patient monitoring before and after surgery