Abstract
Lesion Explorer (LE) is a reliable and comprehensive MRI-derived tissue segmentation and brain region parcellation processing pipeline for obtaining intracranial tissue and subcortical hyperintensity (SH) volumetrics. The processing pipeline segments: gray (GM) and white matter (WM); sulcal (sCSF) and ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (vCSF); periventricular (pvSH) and deep white subcortical hyperintensities (dwSH); and cystic fluid filled lacunar-like infarcts (Lacunar); into 26 regions of interest. A short-term scan–rescan reliability test was performed on 20 healthy volunteers: 10 older (mean = 77.7 years, SD = 11.1) and 10 younger (mean = 29.4 years, SD = 7.1). Each participant was scanned twice with an average interscan interval of 15.4 days (range: 29 min–50 days). Results suggest low technique-related error as indicated by excellent intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) results, with ICCs above 0.90 (p < 0.05) for GM, WM, and CSF, in all 26 regions of interest (13 per hemisphere). Ventricular and lesion sub-type (pvSH, dwSH, and Lacunar) volumes also showed high scan–rescan reliability (dwSH = 0.9998, pvSH = 0.9998, Lacunar = 0.9859, p < 0.01). As indicated by the results of this short-term scan–rescan study, the LE structural MRI processing pipeline can be applied for longitudinal volumetric analyses with confidence
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Acknowledgments
Grant support: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (MT#13129), Alzheimer Society of Canada and Alzheimer Association (US), Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery, and LC Campbell Foundation. Individual salary support: Alzheimer Society of Canada, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Department of Medicine at Sunnybrook and University of Toronto, Brill Chair in Neurology, and Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery.
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Ramirez, J., Scott, C.J.M. & Black, S.E. A Short-Term Scan–Rescan Reliability Test Measuring Brain Tissue and Subcortical Hyperintensity Volumetrics Obtained Using the Lesion Explorer Structural MRI Processing Pipeline. Brain Topogr 26, 35–38 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-012-0228-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10548-012-0228-z