A system for objectively analyzing medical image data for the presence ofdiffuse whitematter abnormalities (DWMA) is configured to identify and determine DWMAcharacteristicsthat are not visually apparent. As compared to subjective visual diagnosis,objectivelydetermined DWMA characteristics may be automatically compared to each other,and may becompared to and associated with various scales, evaluations, or otherassessment criteria used tomeasure aspects of infant development. As a result, the disclosed system mayobjectivelydetermine an impact that objectively determined DWMA characteristics will haveon one ormore developmental scales, which can be expressed as a time deficit, scoredeficit, or other valueindicative of development deficits. The system may be integrated with medicalimaging devicesto provide near-immediate objective analysis for developmental impact at thepoint of care and inparallel with conventional imaging tasks, or may provide objective analysisresults via a softwareinterface.
