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Lockard CA, Hooijmans MT, Zhou X, Coolbaugh C, Damon BM. The impact of diffusion tensor imaging tractography settings on muscle fascicle architecture and diffusion parameter estimates: Tract length, completion, and curvature are most sensitive to tractography settings. NMR IN BIOMEDICINE 2024:e5205. [PMID: 38967274 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.5205] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2023] [Revised: 05/17/2024] [Accepted: 06/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/06/2024]
Abstract
Diffusion-tensor (DT)-MRI tractography provides information about properties relevant to muscle health and function, including estimates of architectural properties such as fascicle length, pennation angle, and curvature and diffusion properties such as mean diffusivity (MD) and fractional anisotropy (FA). Tractography settings, including integration algorithms, thresholds for early tract termination, and tract smoothing approaches, impact the accuracy of the muscle property estimates. However, muscle DT-MRI tractography is performed using a variety of these settings, complicating comparisons between different studies. The effects of different tractography settings on muscle architecture estimates have not been fully explored, and optimized settings for muscle tractography have not yet been determined. We examined the influence of integration algorithm and termination check settings combined with a range of step sizes, termination criteria, and smoothing polynomial orders on tract characteristics, completion/reason for termination, and goodness of fit between fiber tracts and smoothing polynomials using 3-T DT-MR images of the lower leg muscles of seven healthy adults. We found that tract length and completion were highly sensitive to strict FA and intersegment angle thresholds (25%-69% reduction in complete fiber tracts from lowest to highest minimum FA threshold and 11%-36% reduction from highest to lowest intersegment angle threshold). Higher order polynomials (third and fourth order vs. second order) better fit the muscle fiber trajectories, but curvature estimates were highly sensitive to smoothing polynomial order (3.9-6.6 m-1 increase for second- vs. fourth-order fitting polynomials). Step size impacted curvature estimates, albeit to a lesser degree. Integration algorithm had little impact, and mean pennation angle, and tract-based FA and MD, were relatively insensitive to all parameters. The results demonstrate which muscle diffusion measures and architectural estimates are most sensitive to varying tractography settings and support the need for consistent reporting of tractography details to aid interpretation and comparison of results between studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Carly A Lockard
- Carle Clinical Imaging Research Program, Stephens Family Clinical Research Institute, Carle Health, Urbana, Illinois, USA
| | - Melissa T Hooijmans
- Carle Clinical Imaging Research Program, Stephens Family Clinical Research Institute, Carle Health, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Xingyu Zhou
- Carle Clinical Imaging Research Program, Stephens Family Clinical Research Institute, Carle Health, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Crystal Coolbaugh
- Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
| | - Bruce M Damon
- Carle Clinical Imaging Research Program, Stephens Family Clinical Research Institute, Carle Health, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
- Beckman Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA
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2
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Aja-Fernández S, Martín-Martín C, Planchuelo-Gómez Á, Faiyaz A, Uddin MN, Schifitto G, Tiwari A, Shigwan SJ, Kumar Singh R, Zheng T, Cao Z, Wu D, Blumberg SB, Sen S, Goodwin-Allcock T, Slator PJ, Yigit Avci M, Li Z, Bilgic B, Tian Q, Wang X, Tang Z, Cabezas M, Rauland A, Merhof D, Manzano Maria R, Campos VP, Santini T, da Costa Vieira MA, HashemizadehKolowri S, DiBella E, Peng C, Shen Z, Chen Z, Ullah I, Mani M, Abdolmotalleby H, Eckstrom S, Baete SH, Filipiak P, Dong T, Fan Q, de Luis-García R, Tristán-Vega A, Pieciak T. Validation of deep learning techniques for quality augmentation in diffusion MRI for clinical studies. Neuroimage Clin 2023; 39:103483. [PMID: 37572514 PMCID: PMC10440596 DOI: 10.1016/j.nicl.2023.103483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/02/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 08/14/2023]
Abstract
The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of deep learning (DL) techniques in improving the quality of diffusion MRI (dMRI) data in clinical applications. The study aims to determine whether the use of artificial intelligence (AI) methods in medical images may result in the loss of critical clinical information and/or the appearance of false information. To assess this, the focus was on the angular resolution of dMRI and a clinical trial was conducted on migraine, specifically between episodic and chronic migraine patients. The number of gradient directions had an impact on white matter analysis results, with statistically significant differences between groups being drastically reduced when using 21 gradient directions instead of the original 61. Fourteen teams from different institutions were tasked to use DL to enhance three diffusion metrics (FA, AD and MD) calculated from data acquired with 21 gradient directions and a b-value of 1000 s/mm2. The goal was to produce results that were comparable to those calculated from 61 gradient directions. The results were evaluated using both standard image quality metrics and Tract-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS) to compare episodic and chronic migraine patients. The study results suggest that while most DL techniques improved the ability to detect statistical differences between groups, they also led to an increase in false positive. The results showed that there was a constant growth rate of false positives linearly proportional to the new true positives, which highlights the risk of generalization of AI-based tasks when assessing diverse clinical cohorts and training using data from a single group. The methods also showed divergent performance when replicating the original distribution of the data and some exhibited significant bias. In conclusion, extreme caution should be exercised when using AI methods for harmonization or synthesis in clinical studies when processing heterogeneous data in clinical studies, as important information may be altered, even when global metrics such as structural similarity or peak signal-to-noise ratio appear to suggest otherwise.
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Affiliation(s)
- Santiago Aja-Fernández
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen (LPI), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain.
| | - Carmen Martín-Martín
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen (LPI), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
| | - Álvaro Planchuelo-Gómez
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen (LPI), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain; Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Dan Wu
- Zhejiang University, China
| | | | | | | | | | | | - Zihan Li
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, USA
| | - Berkin Bilgic
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, USA
| | - Qiyuan Tian
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, USA
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Zan Chen
- Zhejiang University of Technology, China
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | - Rodrigo de Luis-García
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen (LPI), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
| | - Antonio Tristán-Vega
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen (LPI), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
| | - Tomasz Pieciak
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen (LPI), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
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3
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Safri AA, Nassir CMNCM, Iman IN, Mohd Taib NH, Achuthan A, Mustapha M. Diffusion tensor imaging pipeline measures of cerebral white matter integrity: An overview of recent advances and prospects. World J Clin Cases 2022; 10:8450-8462. [PMID: 36157806 PMCID: PMC9453345 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i24.8450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2022] [Revised: 06/20/2022] [Accepted: 07/17/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is a leading cause of age-related microvascular cognitive decline, resulting in significant morbidity and decreased quality of life. Despite a progress on its key pathophysiological bases and general acceptance of key terms from neuroimaging findings as observed on the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), key questions on CSVD remain elusive. Enhanced relationships and reliable lesion studies, such as white matter tractography using diffusion-based MRI (dMRI) are necessary in order to improve the assessment of white matter architecture and connectivity in CSVD. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and tractography is an application of dMRI that provides data that can be used to non-invasively appraise the brain white matter connections via fiber tracking and enable visualization of individual patient-specific white matter fiber tracts to reflect the extent of CSVD-associated white matter damage. However, due to a lack of standardization on various sets of software or image pipeline processing utilized in this technique that driven mostly from research setting, interpreting the findings remain contentious, especially to inform an improved diagnosis and/or prognosis of CSVD for routine clinical use. In this minireview, we highlight the advances in DTI pipeline processing and the prospect of this DTI metrics as potential imaging biomarker for CSVD, even for subclinical CSVD in at-risk individuals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Amanina Ahmad Safri
- Department of Neurosciences, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, Kubang Kerian 16150, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Che Mohd Nasril Che Mohd Nassir
- Department of Neurosciences, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, Kubang Kerian 16150, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Ismail Nurul Iman
- Department of Neurosciences, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, Kubang Kerian 16150, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Nur Hartini Mohd Taib
- Department of Radiology, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, Kubang Kerian 16150, Kelantan, Malaysia
| | - Anusha Achuthan
- School of Computer Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 USM, Penang, Malaysia
| | - Muzaimi Mustapha
- Department of Neurosciences, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Health Campus, Kubang Kerian 16150, Kelantan, Malaysia
- Department of Neurosciences, Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia, Kubang Kerian 16150, Kelantan, Malaysia
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4
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Seider NA, Adeyemo B, Miller R, Newbold DJ, Hampton JM, Scheidter KM, Rutlin J, Laumann TO, Roland JL, Montez DF, Van AN, Zheng A, Marek S, Kay BP, Bretthorst GL, Schlaggar BL, Greene DJ, Wang Y, Petersen SE, Barch DM, Gordon EM, Snyder AZ, Shimony JS, Dosenbach NUF. Accuracy and reliability of diffusion imaging models. Neuroimage 2022; 254:119138. [PMID: 35339687 PMCID: PMC9841915 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2021] [Revised: 03/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/22/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Diffusion imaging aims to non-invasively characterize the anatomy and integrity of the brain's white matter fibers. We evaluated the accuracy and reliability of commonly used diffusion imaging methods as a function of data quantity and analysis method, using both simulations and highly sampled individual-specific data (927-1442 diffusion weighted images [DWIs] per individual). Diffusion imaging methods that allow for crossing fibers (FSL's BedpostX [BPX], DSI Studio's Constant Solid Angle Q-Ball Imaging [CSA-QBI], MRtrix3's Constrained Spherical Deconvolution [CSD]) estimated excess fibers when insufficient data were present and/or when the data did not match the model priors. To reduce such overfitting, we developed a novel Bayesian Multi-tensor Model-selection (BaMM) method and applied it to the popular ball-and-stick model used in BedpostX within the FSL software package. BaMM was robust to overfitting and showed high reliability and the relatively best crossing-fiber accuracy with increasing amounts of diffusion data. Thus, sufficient data and an overfitting resistant analysis method enhance precision diffusion imaging. For potential clinical applications of diffusion imaging, such as neurosurgical planning and deep brain stimulation (DBS), the quantities of data required to achieve diffusion imaging reliability are lower than those needed for functional MRI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nicole A Seider
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Babatunde Adeyemo
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Ryland Miller
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Dillan J Newbold
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Neurology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
| | - Jacqueline M Hampton
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Kristen M Scheidter
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Jerrel Rutlin
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Timothy O Laumann
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Jarod L Roland
- Department of Neurological Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO 63110 United States of America
| | - David F Montez
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Andrew N Van
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Annie Zheng
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Scott Marek
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Benjamin P Kay
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - G Larry Bretthorst
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Bradley L Schlaggar
- Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD 21205, United States of America; Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States of America; Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21287, United States of America
| | - Deanna J Greene
- Department of Cognitive Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States of America
| | - Yong Wang
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Steven E Petersen
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Deanna M Barch
- Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Evan M Gordon
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Abraham Z Snyder
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Joshua S Shimony
- Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Neuroscience, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
| | - Nico U F Dosenbach
- Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St Louis, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Program in Occupational Therapy, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America; Department of Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States of America
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5
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Aja-Fernández S, Pieciak T, Martín-Martín C, Planchuelo-Gómez Á, de Luis-García R, Tristán-Vega A. Moment-based representation of the diffusion inside the brain from reduced DMRI acquisitions: generalized AMURA. Med Image Anal 2022; 77:102356. [DOI: 10.1016/j.media.2022.102356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/29/2021] [Revised: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 01/06/2022] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
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6
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Bergmann Ø, Henriques R, Westin CF, Pasternak O. Fast and accurate initialization of the free-water imaging model parameters from multi-shell diffusion MRI. NMR IN BIOMEDICINE 2020; 33:e4219. [PMID: 31856383 PMCID: PMC7110532 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.4219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/19/2018] [Revised: 10/03/2019] [Accepted: 10/05/2019] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
Cerebrospinal fluid partial volume effect is a known bias in the estimation of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) parameters from diffusion MRI data. The Free-Water Imaging model for diffusion MRI data adds a second compartment to the DTI model, which explicitly accounts for the signal contribution of extracellular free-water, such as cerebrospinal fluid. As a result the DTI parameters obtained through the free-water model are corrected for partial volume effects, and thus better represent tissue microstructure. In addition, the model estimates the fractional volume of free-water, and can be used to monitor changes in the extracellular space. Under certain assumptions, the model can be estimated from single-shell diffusion MRI data. However, by using data from multi-shell diffusion acquisitions, these assumptions can be relaxed, and the fit becomes more robust. Nevertheless, fitting the model to multi-shell data requires high computational cost, with a non-linear iterative minimization, which has to be initialized close enough to the global minimum to avoid local minima and to robustly estimate the model parameters. Here we investigate the properties of the main initialization approaches that are currently being used, and suggest new fast approaches to improve the initial estimates of the model parameters. We show that our proposed approaches provide a fast and accurate initial approximation of the model parameters, which is very close to the final solution. We demonstrate that the proposed initializations improve the final outcome of non-linear model fitting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ørjan Bergmann
- Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA
- Norwegian Multiple Sclerosis Competence Center, Bergen, Norway
| | - Rafael Henriques
- Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Carl-Fredrik Westin
- Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA
| | - Ofer Pasternak
- Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, USA
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7
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Generalised boundary shift integral for longitudinal assessment of spinal cord atrophy. Neuroimage 2019; 209:116489. [PMID: 31877375 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2019] [Revised: 12/18/2019] [Accepted: 12/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Spinal cord atrophy measurements obtained from structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are associated with disability in many neurological diseases and serve as in vivo biomarkers of neurodegeneration. Longitudinal spinal cord atrophy rate is commonly determined from the numerical difference between two volumes (based on 3D surface fitting) or two cross-sectional areas (CSA, based on 2D edge detection) obtained at different time-points. Being an indirect measure, atrophy rates are susceptible to variable segmentation errors at the edge of the spinal cord. To overcome those limitations, we developed a new registration-based pipeline that measures atrophy rates directly. We based our approach on the generalised boundary shift integral (GBSI) method, which registers 2 scans and uses a probabilistic XOR mask over the edge of the spinal cord, thereby measuring atrophy more accurately than segmentation-based techniques. Using a large cohort of longitudinal spinal cord images (610 subjects with multiple sclerosis from a multi-centre trial and 52 healthy controls), we demonstrated that GBSI is a sensitive, quantitative and objective measure of longitudinal spinal cord volume change. The GBSI pipeline is repeatable, reproducible, and provides more precise measurements of longitudinal spinal cord atrophy than segmentation-based methods in longitudinal spinal cord atrophy studies.
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8
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Scalar diffusion-MRI measures invariant to acquisition parameters: A first step towards imaging biomarkers. Magn Reson Imaging 2018; 54:194-213. [PMID: 30196167 DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2018.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2017] [Revised: 01/18/2018] [Accepted: 03/07/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
An imaging biomarker is a biologic feature in an image that is relevant to a patient's diagnosis or prognosis. In order to qualify as a biomarker, a measure must be robust and reproducible. However, the usual scalar measures derived from diffusion tensor imaging are known to be highly dependent on the variation of the acquisition parameters, which prevents their possible use as biomarkers. In this work, we propose a new set of quantitative measures based on diffusion magnetic resonance imaging from single-shell acquisitions that are designed to be robust to the variations of several acquisition parameters (number of gradient directions, b-value and SNR) while keeping a high discrimination power on differences in the diffusion characteristics of the tissue. These new scalar measures are analytically obtained from a generic diffusion function that does not require the calculation of a diffusion tensor. This way, on one hand, we avoid the use of a specific diffusion model and, on the other hand, we make easier the statistical characterization of the measures. Accordingly, the analysis of the measures bias is carried out and it is used to minimize their dependency with respect to the acquisition noise for different SNRs. The robustness and discrimination power of the measures are tested for different number of gradients, b-values and SNRs using a realistic phantom and three real datasets: (1) 13 control subjects and different acquisition parameters; (2) a public data set from a single subject acquired using multiple shells and (3) 32 schizophrenia patients and 32 age and sex-matched healthy controls with a varying number of gradient directions. The proposed quantitative measures exhibit low variability to the changes of the acquisition parameters, while at the same time they preserve a discrimination power that is able to detect significant changes in the anisotropy of the diffusion.
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9
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Wegmann B, Eklund A, Villani M. Bayesian Rician Regression for Neuroimaging. Front Neurosci 2017; 11:586. [PMID: 29104529 PMCID: PMC5655010 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2017.00586] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2017] [Accepted: 10/04/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
It is well-known that data from diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) follow the Rician distribution. The Rician distribution is also relevant for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data obtained at high temporal or spatial resolution. We propose a general regression model for non-central χ (NC-χ) distributed data, with the heteroscedastic Rician regression model as a prominent special case. The model allows both parameters in the Rician distribution to be linked to explanatory variables, with the relevant variables chosen by Bayesian variable selection. A highly efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm is proposed to capture full model uncertainty by simulating from the joint posterior distribution of all model parameters and the binary variable selection indicators. Simulated regression data is used to demonstrate that the Rician model is able to detect the signal much more accurately than the traditionally used Gaussian model at low signal-to-noise ratios. Using a diffusion dataset from the Human Connectome Project, it is also shown that the commonly used approximate Gaussian noise model underestimates the mean diffusivity (MD) and the fractional anisotropy (FA) in the single-diffusion tensor model compared to the Rician model.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bertil Wegmann
- Division of Statistics and Machine Learning, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Anders Eklund
- Division of Statistics and Machine Learning, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.,Division of Medical Informatics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden.,Center for Medical Image Science and Visualization, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Mattias Villani
- Division of Statistics and Machine Learning, Department of Computer and Information Science, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
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10
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Sprenger T, Sperl JI, Fernandez B, Haase A, Menzel MI. Real valued diffusion‐weighted imaging using decorrelated phase filtering. Magn Reson Med 2016; 77:559-570. [DOI: 10.1002/mrm.26138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2015] [Revised: 11/26/2015] [Accepted: 12/24/2015] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Tim Sprenger
- Technische Universität München, Institute of Medical Engineering, Munich, Germany.,GE Global Research, Munich, Germany
| | | | | | - Axel Haase
- Technische Universität München, Institute of Medical Engineering, Munich, Germany
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11
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Canales-Rodríguez EJ, Daducci A, Sotiropoulos SN, Caruyer E, Aja-Fernández S, Radua J, Yurramendi Mendizabal JM, Iturria-Medina Y, Melie-García L, Alemán-Gómez Y, Thiran JP, Sarró S, Pomarol-Clotet E, Salvador R. Spherical Deconvolution of Multichannel Diffusion MRI Data with Non-Gaussian Noise Models and Spatial Regularization. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0138910. [PMID: 26470024 PMCID: PMC4607500 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138910] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/13/2015] [Accepted: 09/06/2015] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Spherical deconvolution (SD) methods are widely used to estimate the intra-voxel white-matter fiber orientations from diffusion MRI data. However, while some of these methods assume a zero-mean Gaussian distribution for the underlying noise, its real distribution is known to be non-Gaussian and to depend on many factors such as the number of coils and the methodology used to combine multichannel MRI signals. Indeed, the two prevailing methods for multichannel signal combination lead to noise patterns better described by Rician and noncentral Chi distributions. Here we develop a Robust and Unbiased Model-BAsed Spherical Deconvolution (RUMBA-SD) technique, intended to deal with realistic MRI noise, based on a Richardson-Lucy (RL) algorithm adapted to Rician and noncentral Chi likelihood models. To quantify the benefits of using proper noise models, RUMBA-SD was compared with dRL-SD, a well-established method based on the RL algorithm for Gaussian noise. Another aim of the study was to quantify the impact of including a total variation (TV) spatial regularization term in the estimation framework. To do this, we developed TV spatially-regularized versions of both RUMBA-SD and dRL-SD algorithms. The evaluation was performed by comparing various quality metrics on 132 three-dimensional synthetic phantoms involving different inter-fiber angles and volume fractions, which were contaminated with noise mimicking patterns generated by data processing in multichannel scanners. The results demonstrate that the inclusion of proper likelihood models leads to an increased ability to resolve fiber crossings with smaller inter-fiber angles and to better detect non-dominant fibers. The inclusion of TV regularization dramatically improved the resolution power of both techniques. The above findings were also verified in human brain data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erick J. Canales-Rodríguez
- FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries, C/ Dr. Antoni Pujadas, 38, 08830, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, C/Dr Esquerdo, 46, 28007, Madrid, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | - Alessandro Daducci
- Signal Processing Lab (LTS5), École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- University Hospital Center (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Stamatios N. Sotiropoulos
- Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX39DU, United Kingdom
| | - Emmanuel Caruyer
- CNRS—IRISA (UMR 6074), Inria, VisAGeS Project-Team, INSERM, VisAGeS U746, Université de Rennes 1, Campus de Beaulieu, 35042, Rennes Cedex, France
| | - Santiago Aja-Fernández
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen (LPI), ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain
| | - Joaquim Radua
- FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries, C/ Dr. Antoni Pujadas, 38, 08830, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, C/Dr Esquerdo, 46, 28007, Madrid, Spain
- Department of Psychosis Studies, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, United Kingdom
- Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
| | - Jesús M. Yurramendi Mendizabal
- Departamento de Ciencia de la Computación e Inteligencial Artificial, Universidad del País Vasco, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, Spain
| | - Yasser Iturria-Medina
- McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Lester Melie-García
- The Neuroimaging Research Laboratory, Laboratoire de Recherche en Neuroimagerie: LREN, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University Hospital Center (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Yasser Alemán-Gómez
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, C/Dr Esquerdo, 46, 28007, Madrid, Spain
- Departamento de Bioingeniería e Ingeniería Aeroespacial. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain
| | - Jean-Philippe Thiran
- Signal Processing Lab (LTS5), École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- University Hospital Center (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Salvador Sarró
- FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries, C/ Dr. Antoni Pujadas, 38, 08830, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, C/Dr Esquerdo, 46, 28007, Madrid, Spain
| | - Edith Pomarol-Clotet
- FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries, C/ Dr. Antoni Pujadas, 38, 08830, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, C/Dr Esquerdo, 46, 28007, Madrid, Spain
| | - Raymond Salvador
- FIDMAG Germanes Hospitalàries, C/ Dr. Antoni Pujadas, 38, 08830, Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental, CIBERSAM, C/Dr Esquerdo, 46, 28007, Madrid, Spain
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12
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Savadjiev P, Seidman LJ, Thermenos H, Keshavan M, Whitfield-Gabrieli S, Crow TJ, Kubicki M. Sexual dimorphic abnormalities in white matter geometry common to schizophrenia and non-psychotic high-risk subjects: Evidence for a neurodevelopmental risk marker? Hum Brain Mapp 2015; 37:254-61. [PMID: 26467751 DOI: 10.1002/hbm.23026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2015] [Revised: 09/30/2015] [Accepted: 10/04/2015] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The characterization of neurodevelopmental aspects of brain alterations require neuroimaging methods that reflect correlates of neurodevelopment, while being robust to other progressive pathological processes. Newly developed neuroimaging methods for measuring geometrical features of the white matter fall exactly into this category. Our recent work shows that such features, measured in the anterior corpus callosum in diffusion MRI data, correlate with psychosis symptoms in patients with adolescent onset schizophrenia and subside a reversal of normal sexual dimorphism. Here, we test the hypothesis that similar developmental deviations will also be present in nonpsychotic subjects at familial high risk (FHR) for schizophrenia, due to genetic predispositions. Demonstrating such changes would provide a strong indication of neurodevelopmental deviation extant before, and independent of pathological changes occurring after disease onset. We examined the macrostructural geometry of corpus callosum white matter in diffusion MRI data of 35 non-psychotic subjects with genetic (familial) risk for schizophrenia, and 26 control subjects, both male and female. We report a reversal of normal sexual dimorphism in callosal white matter geometry consistent with recent results in adolescent onset schizophrenia. This pattern may be indicative of an error in neurogenesis and a possible trait marker of schizophrenia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Peter Savadjiev
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Larry J Seidman
- Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Division of Public Psychiatry, Boston, Massachusetts.,Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Heidi Thermenos
- Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Division of Public Psychiatry, Boston, Massachusetts.,Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Matcheri Keshavan
- Department of Psychiatry, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
| | - Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli
- Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
| | - Tim J Crow
- SANE POWIC, University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom
| | - Marek Kubicki
- Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.,Department of Psychiatry and Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
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13
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Barrio-Arranz G, de Luis-García R, Tristán-Vega A, Martín-Fernández M, Aja-Fernández S. Impact of MR Acquisition Parameters on DTI Scalar Indexes: A Tractography Based Approach. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0137905. [PMID: 26457415 PMCID: PMC4601730 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137905] [Citation(s) in RCA: 52] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2015] [Accepted: 08/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Acquisition parameters play a crucial role in Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), as they have a major impact on the values of scalar measures such as Fractional Anisotropy (FA) or Mean Diffusivity (MD) that are usually the focus of clinical studies based on white matter analysis. This paper presents an analysis on the impact of the variation of several acquisition parameters on these scalar measures with a novel double focus. First, a tractography-based approach is employed, motivated by the significant number of clinical studies that are carried out using this technique. Second, the consequences of simultaneous changes in multiple parameters are analyzed: number of gradient directions, b-value and voxel resolution. Results indicate that the FA is most affected by changes in the number of gradients and voxel resolution, while MD is specially influenced by variations in the b-value. Even if the choice of a tractography algorithm has an effect on the numerical values of the final scalar measures, the evolution of these measures when acquisition parameters are modified is parallel.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gonzalo Barrio-Arranz
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen, Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática/ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, España
| | - Rodrigo de Luis-García
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen, Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática/ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, España
| | - Antonio Tristán-Vega
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen, Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática/ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, España
| | - Marcos Martín-Fernández
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen, Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática/ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, España
| | - Santiago Aja-Fernández
- Laboratorio de Procesado de Imagen, Departamento de Teoría de la Señal y Comunicaciones e Ingeniería Telemática/ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad de Valladolid, Valladolid, España
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14
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Hüttlova J, Kikinis Z, Kerkovsky M, Bouix S, Vu MA, Makris N, Shenton M, Kasparek T. Abnormalities in Myelination of the Superior Cerebellar Peduncle in Patients with Schizophrenia and Deficits in Movement Sequencing. THE CEREBELLUM 2014; 13:415-24. [DOI: 10.1007/s12311-014-0550-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
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15
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Veraart J, Sijbers J, Sunaert S, Leemans A, Jeurissen B. Weighted linear least squares estimation of diffusion MRI parameters: Strengths, limitations, and pitfalls. Neuroimage 2013; 81:335-346. [PMID: 23684865 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.028] [Citation(s) in RCA: 321] [Impact Index Per Article: 29.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/11/2012] [Revised: 04/08/2013] [Accepted: 05/03/2013] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
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16
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Veraart J, Rajan J, Peeters RR, Leemans A, Sunaert S, Sijbers J. Comprehensive framework for accurate diffusion MRI parameter estimation. Magn Reson Med 2012; 70:972-84. [PMID: 23132517 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.24529] [Citation(s) in RCA: 78] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2012] [Revised: 09/21/2012] [Accepted: 09/24/2012] [Indexed: 11/12/2022]
Abstract
During the last decade, many approaches have been proposed for improving the estimation of diffusion measures. These techniques have already shown an increase in accuracy based on theoretical considerations, such as incorporating prior knowledge of the data distribution. The increased accuracy of diffusion metric estimators is typically observed in well-defined simulations, where the assumptions regarding properties of the data distribution are known to be valid. In practice, however, correcting for subject motion and geometric eddy current deformations alters the data distribution tremendously such that it can no longer be expressed in a closed form. The image processing steps that precede the model fitting will render several assumptions on the data distribution invalid, potentially nullifying the benefit of applying more advanced diffusion estimators. In this work, we present a generic diffusion model fitting framework that considers some statistics of diffusion MRI data. A central role in the framework is played by the conditional least squares estimator. We demonstrate that the accuracy of that particular estimator can generally be preserved, regardless the applied preprocessing steps, if the noise parameter is known a priori. To fulfill that condition, we also propose an approach for the estimation of spatially varying noise levels.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jelle Veraart
- IBBT Vision Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
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17
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Jones DK, Knösche TR, Turner R. White matter integrity, fiber count, and other fallacies: the do's and don'ts of diffusion MRI. Neuroimage 2012; 73:239-54. [PMID: 22846632 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.06.081] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1676] [Impact Index Per Article: 139.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2011] [Revised: 06/08/2012] [Accepted: 06/26/2012] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) has been increasingly used in imaging neuroscience over the last decade. An early form of this technique, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) was rapidly implemented by major MRI scanner companies as a scanner selling point. Due to the ease of use of such implementations, and the plausibility of some of their results, DTI was leapt on by imaging neuroscientists who saw it as a powerful and unique new tool for exploring the structural connectivity of human brain. However, DTI is a rather approximate technique, and its results have frequently been given implausible interpretations that have escaped proper critique and have appeared misleadingly in journals of high reputation. In order to encourage the use of improved DW-MRI methods, which have a better chance of characterizing the actual fiber structure of white matter, and to warn against the misuse and misinterpretation of DTI, we review the physics of DW-MRI, indicate currently preferred methodology, and explain the limits of interpretation of its results. We conclude with a list of 'Do's and Don'ts' which define good practice in this expanding area of imaging neuroscience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derek K Jones
- Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre (CUBRIC), School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Park Place, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK.
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18
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Chen F, Zhang X, Li M, Wang R, Wang HT, Zhu F, Lu DJ, Zhao H, Li JW, Xu Y, Zhu B, Zhang B. Axial diffusivity and tensor shape as early markers to assess cerebral white matter damage caused by brain tumors using quantitative diffusion tensor tractography. CNS Neurosci Ther 2012; 18:667-73. [PMID: 22712656 DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-5949.2012.00354.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/26/2012] [Revised: 03/18/2012] [Accepted: 03/19/2012] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
AIMS We investigated the usefulness of diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) for differentiating between histological pathologies and evaluating white matter (WM) damage resulting from brain tumors. We also sought to categorize the appearance of brain tumor-related WM tract changes. METHODS A total of 18 inpatients with intracranial neoplasms were enrolled. MRI examinations were performed at 3 T using an 8-channel phased array coil. DTT was reconstruction from the raw data of diffusion tensor imaging. WM tract-based analysis of the mean diffusivity (MD), eigenvalues (λ(1) , λ(2) , λ(3) ), and fractional anisotropy (FA) was performed by the manual placement of regions of interest (ROIs) on the color-coded FA maps using DTIStudio software. The axial diffusivity (DA, namely λ(1) ) and the tensor shape (Cl, namely (λ(1) -λ(2) )/3 (λ)) were also compared between groups. P values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. RESULTS In cases of low-grade glioma (LGG), the tracts adjacent to the tumors displayed the highest levels of invasion. Tract disruption was mainly observed in cases of high-grade glioma (HGG). We found significant differences regarding the FA, MD, DA, and radial diffusivity between ROIs in patients with LGG or HGG. There were also significant differences in DA and tensor shape (Cl) between patients with LGG and HGG. CONCLUSION Axial diffusivity and Cl may be useful early markers for differentiating between LGG and HGG.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fei Chen
- Department of Neurology, Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital Clinical College of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China
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