Abstract
Background: Multi-site MRI studies are often necessary for recruiting sufficiently sized samples when studying rare conditions. However, they require pooling data from multiple scanners into a single data set, and therefore it is critical to evaluate the variability of quantitative MRI measures within and across scanners used in multi-site studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility of structural and diffusion weighted (DW) MRI measurements acquired on seven scanners at five medical centers as part of the Tuberous Sclerosis Complex Autism Center of Excellence Research Network (TACERN) multisite study. Methods: The American College of Radiology (ACR) phantom was imaged monthly to measure reproducibility of signal intensity and uniformity within and across seven 3T scanners from General Electric, Philips, and Siemens vendors. One healthy adult male volunteer was imaged repeatedly on all seven scanners under the TACERN structural and DW protocol (5 b = 0 s/mm2 and 30 b = 1000 s/mm2) over a period of 5 years (age 22–27 years). Reproducibility of inter- and intra-scanner brain segmentation volumes and diffusion tensor imaging metrics fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) within white matter regions was quantified with coefficient of variation. Results: The American College of Radiology Phantom signal intensity and uniformity were similar across scanners and changed little over time, with a mean intra-scanner coefficient of variation of 3.6 and 1.8%, respectively. The mean inter- and intra-scanner coefficients of variation of brain structure volumes derived from T1-weighted (T1w) images of the human phantom were 3.3 and 1.1%, respectively. The mean inter- and intra-scanner coefficients of variation of FA in white matter regions were 4.5 and 2.5%, while the mean inter- and intra-scanner coefficients of variation of MD in white matter regions were 5.4 and 1.5%. Conclusion: Our results suggest that volumetric and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measurements are highly reproducible between and within scanners and provide typical variation amplitudes that can be used as references to interpret future findings in the TACERN network.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 24 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience |
| Volume | 13 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 5 2019 |
Funding
Research funding from Novartis We are sincerely indebted to the generosity of the families and patients in TSC clinics across the United States who contributed their time and effort to this study. We would also like to thank the Tuberous Sclerosis Alliance for their continued support in TSC research. Funding. Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NINDS) and Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) under the award number U01NS082320 as well as the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at the Boston Children?s Hospital (U54HD090255). This investigation was also supported in part by the NIH grants R01 NS079788, R01 EB019483, R44 MH086984, and by a research grant from the Boston Children?s Hospital Translational Research Program. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. In the last year, my team has also done psych consults for Dr. Northrup’s Biomarin clinical trial and Dr. Koenig’s Novartis clinical trial. Thus, although I am listing myself as having received research grant funds from these projects, the funds are actually awarded to Hope and Mary Kay. Biomarin: Research grant funds (Northrup, PI) Novartis: Research grant funds (Koenig, PI) None
Keywords
- ACR
- Brain
- MRI
- Multicenter study
- Phantom
- Quality assurance
- Reproducibility
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Sensory Systems
- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
- Cognitive Neuroscience