Hippocampus is an important part of brain which is related with early memory storage and spatial navigation. By observing the anatomy of hippocampus, some brain diseases effecting human memory (e.g. Alzheimer, schizophrenia, etc.) can be diagnosed and predicted earlier. The diagnosis process is highly related with hippocampus segmentation. In this paper, hippocampus segmentation using Active Shape Model, which not only works based on image intensity, but also by using prior knowledge of hippocampus shape and intensity from the training images, is proposed. The results show that ASM is applicable in segmenting hippocampus from whole brain MR image. It also shows that adding more images in the training set results in better accuracy of hippocampus segmentation. Science, and Technology (2012-0002646). Also thanks to Haeundae Paik Hospital, Dong-A University Hospital, Pusan National University Hospital, and Gyeongsang National University Hospital for providing the MR images for this research.

Mild Cognitive Impairment(MCI) is a prior step to Alzheimer's Disease(AD). It is different from AD which is seriously affecting daily life. Particularly, the hippocampus could be charged a crucial function for forming memory. MCI has a high risk about progress to AD. Our investigated research for a relationship between hippocampus and AD has been studied. The measurement of hippocampus volumetric is one of the most commonly used method. The three dimensional reconstructed medical images could be passible to interpret and its examination in various aspects but the cost of brain research with the medical equipment is very high. In this study, 3D visualization was performed from a series of brain Magnetic Resonance Images(MRI) and we have designed and implemented a competitive software tool based on the open libraries of Visualization ToolKit(VTK). Consequently, our visualization software tool could be useful to various medical fields and specially prognosis and diagnosis for MCI patients.