• Dejan Jakimovski, Robert Zivadinov, Niels Bergsland, Jiwon Oh, Melissa Martin, Russell T Shinohara, Rohit Bakshi, Peter A Calabresi, Nico Papinutto, Daniel Pelletier, and Michael G Dwyer.
• Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, Department of Neurology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York, USA.
• J Neuroimaging. 2022 Sep 1; 32 (5): 910919910-919.

Background And PurposeThe North American Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis (NAIMS) multisite project identified interscanner reproducibility issues with T1-based whole brain volume (WBV). Lateral ventricular volume (LVV) acquired on T2-fluid-attenuated inverse recovery (FLAIR) scans has been proposed as a robust proxy measure. Therefore, we sought to determine the relative magnitude of scanner-induced T2-FLAIR-based LVV and T1-based WBV measurement errors in relation to clinically meaningful changes.MethodsThis was a post hoc analysis of the NAIMS pilot dataset in which a relapsing-remitting MS patient with no intrastudy clinical or radiological activity was imaged twice on seven different Siemens scanners across the United States. LVV was determined using the automated NeuroSTREAM technique on T2-FLAIR and WBV was determined with SIENAX on high-resolution T1-MPRAGE. Average LVV and WBV were measured, and absolute intrascanner and interscanner coefficients of variation (CoVs) were calculated. The variabilities were compared to previously established annual pathological and clinically meaningful cutoffs of 0.40% for WBV and of 3.51% for LVV.ResultsMean LVV across all seven scan/rescan pairs was 45.87 ± 1.15 ml. Average LVV intrascanner CoV was 1.42% and interscanner CoV was 1.78%, both smaller than the reported annualized clinically meaningful cutoff of 3.51%. In contrast, intra- and interscanner CoVs for WBV (0.99% and 1.15%) were both higher than the established cutoff of 0.40%. Individually, 1/7 intrasite and 2/7 intersite pair-wise LVV comparisons were above the 3.51% cutoff, whereas 4/7 intrasite and 7/7 intersite WBV comparisons were above the 0.40% cutoff.ConclusionFully automated LVV segmentation has higher absolute variability than WBV, but much lower relative variability compared to clinically relevant changes, and may therefore be a meaningful proxy outcome measure of neurodegeneration.© 2022 American Society of Neuroimaging.

14 keywords...

hide…