Support for diagnosis of neuropsychiatric sle by means of head mri

A method for assisting diagnosis of whether a subject is an SLE patient or an NPSLE patient, the method comprising:

• (1) preparing a head MRI image of a subject;
• (2) gradually changing a color tone of the head MRI image;
• (3) detecting and counting white connected components or black connected components generated in response to color tone changes;
• (4) obtaining a scatter diagram of times of generation and disappearance of the white connected components and the black connected components based on a result of the detecting and counting (3);
• (5) calculating a specific image feature from the scatter diagram;
• and
• (6) determining whether the subject is an SLE patient or an NPSLE patient from the calculated image feature.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for predicting whether a subject is an SLE patient or an NPSLE patient, the computer program causing a computer to function as:

• a reception unit (P1) configured to receive head MRI image data of a prediction target;
• a calculation unit (P2) configured to
• (i) gradually change a color tone of the received head MRI image data,
• (ii) detect and count white connected components or black connected components generated in response to color tone changes,
• (iii) obtain a scatter diagram of times of generation and disappearance of the white connected components and the black connected components based on a result of the detecting and counting,
• (iv) calculate a specific image feature from the scatter diagram, and
• (v) calculate at least one of a probability that the subject is an SLE patient or a probability that the subject is an NPSLE patient;
• and
• an output unit (P3) configured to output a calculation result obtained by the calculation unit.