Detecting cortical cerebral microinfarcts in 7.0 T MR images

Known as 'the invisible lesion', cerebral microinfarcts have been attracting increased attention because of their key role in cognitive decline and dementia. Recently, cerebral microinfarcts have been visualized for the first time in vivo on high resolution 7.0 T MR images. The detection and scoring of microinfarcts requires extensive manual evaluation, is very time-consuming, and highly observer dependent. The goal of this proof of principle study is to introduce a novel technique for the semi-automated detection of microinfarcts. A high sensitivity was required, while limiting the number of false positives that need to be removed afterwards by a human observer.