Gernot Reishofer1, Karl Koschutnig2, Franz Ebner3, Helmut Ahammer4
1Medical University of Graz, Graz, Styria, Austria; 2Psychology, University of Graz; 3Radiology, Medical University of Graz; 4Biophysics, Medical University of Graz
The fractal dimension can serve as a measure for morphological complexity in biological systems. In this study, we proofed the usefulness of this quantitative parameter in the measurement of cerebral vascular complexity. Maximum intensity projections from Time-of-Flight MRI scans from patients suffering from cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM) were analyzed. We found that the fractal dimension was significantly higher in the hemisphere with AVM compared to the hemisphere without AVM indicating that FD is a sensitive parameter to capture vascular complexity. Furthermore we found that the fractal dimension strongly correlates with the maximum slope of contrast media transit in DSC-MRI data.