We are pleased to announce that the Atlas is now available on CD-ROM, as the Whole Brain Atlas CD-ROM Version 1.0.

The Atlas is an information resource for brain imaging which integrates clinical information with multimodality imaging data. Previously it has been accessible only via the World Wide Web.

The Atlas CD-ROM includes over 13,000 brain images in 30 cases (2 fewer than the web site). Like the web site, image data on the Atlas CD-ROM is organized into linked structures via Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and is encoded on the CD-ROM in ISO9660 format. This makes the Atlas CD-ROM accessible using a web browser, just like the Web site. Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or other standard browsers can be used to access the Atlas CD-ROM database on computers running Windows95/NT, Windows 3.1, Macintosh, or UNIX operating systems. A Java applet is also provided which allows more efficient and flexible access to image data.

The CD-ROM-based Atlas provides the same interface to the database as the web-based original. Since the data is local (the computer's CD-ROM drive) rather than remote (the Atlas website), access speed and reliability is greatly improved.

The Atlas CD-ROM contains the Atlas of Normal Structure and Blood Flow, featuring The Top 100 Brain Structures, cases of normal aging: structure and blood flow, vascular anatomy, as well as numerous clinical cases.

Cases consist of full volume datasets in one or several tomographic imaging modalities, including magnetic resonance (MR), roentgen-ray (CT), and nuclear medicine. Some cases include images acquired at several time points, to permit observation of time-related changes. Images from each case are superposed so that direct spatial and temporal comparisons can be made between image types and between timepoints. Cases include:

• Cerebrovascular Disease
  • Acute stroke: speech arrest
  • Acute stroke: fluent aphasia
  • Acute stroke: alexia without agraphia
  • Subacute stroke: transcortical aphasia
  • Subacute stroke: loss of sensation
  • Chronic subdural hematoma
  • Cavernous angioma
  • Arteriovenous malformation, with MRA
  • Vascular dementia
  • Acute stroke (MR diffusion imaging) with MRA
  • Hypertensive encephalopathy
  • Multiple embolic infarctions
  • Hypertensive encephalopathy
  • Fatal stroke
  • Cerebral hemorrhage
• Neoplastic Disease
  • Glioma, TlTc-SPECT
  • Metastatic adenocarcinoma
  • Metastatic bronchogenic carcinoma
  • Meningioma
  • Sarcoma
• Degenerative Disease
  • Alzheimer's disease
  • Alzheimer's disease with functional MRI
  • Huntington's disease
  • Motor neuron disease
  • Cerebral calcinosis
  • Pick's disease
  • Alzheimer's disease, visual agnosia
• Inflammatory or Infectious Disease
  • Multiple sclerosis (with time-lapse movies)
  • AIDS dementia
  • Lyme encephalopathy
  • Herpes encephalitis
  • Creutzfeld-Jakob disease
  • Cerebral Toxoplasmosis

The Whole Brain Atlas Version 1.0 CD-ROM is priced at US$100 for individuals and US$500 for institutions and libraries, plus shipping and handling ($10 for UPS ground within the US, overseas at cost, roughly $15 for Global Priority mail). American Academy of Neurology members will receive a 20% discount. Payment can be made via credit card, money order, or check.

The Atlas CD-ROM began shipping Dec. 1, 1997.