NIRL Method Development Guidelines
MRI Morphometry

By Martha E. Payne, MPH, RD
January, 2004

Introduction

Steps of Method Development

1. Define region to be measured
2. Review methods used by others
3. Investigate neuroanatomy of region
4. Review software options
5. Make a draft of rules to use
6. Test rules on actual data set
7. Revise and finalize procedures
8. Practice and Train
9. Reliability processing
10. Validation

Ongoing Method Developement

Introduction

• Iterative Process
• MRI does not provide histological or neuropathological exactness
• Do not work in a vacuum - At all stages, discuss with collaborators and experts
• Accuracy is not enough - Method must be reproducible
• It is not recommended to skip from Step 1 to Step 11!