Since cerebral atrophy does not occur only in a specific cross-section and
reaches the brain in its entirety or arises prominently in a specific
lobe (for example temporal lobe), for the assessment of cerebral atrophy,
not only atrophy assessment for the frontal lobe but also an assessment
also including atrophy of the temporal lobe, the parietal lobe and the
occipital lobe is more desirable. The intracranial volume, the volume of
the grey matter and the volume of the white matter are respectively
extracted, computed and converted into numbers by image processing from a
plurality of MRI slice images and the like. Ratios of these values from
the conversions into numbers are taken to calculate the ratio of the grey
matter and the ratio of the white matter with respect to the entire
brain. Through comparison of a multitude of measurement data obtained by
this automated computation, and a case, an objective cerebral atrophy
assessment is carried out.