MR images show a large range of contrast for various tissues in the bo
dy and are ideal for multispectral segmentation, Typically, only two M
R images (dual-echo series) are used for segmentation; however, other
images are often available, We evaluated MR images from 40 patients to
determine the optimal type and number of images required for segmenta
tion of tissues associated with brain tumors (normal brain, edema, nec
rosis, and active tumor), Pattern recognition methods indicated that t
hree MR images from the same slice location were adequate for segmenta
tion, as defined by feature selection and feature extraction measures
based on training fields, This result was also confirmed by visually e
xamining segmented images for all 40 patients, This work demonstrates
that by using existing image/statistical analysis techniques (feature
selection and feature extraction), one can systematically determine th
e optimal type and number of MR images for tissue segmentation.