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Brain regional volume estimations with NeuroQuant and FIRST: a study in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Purpose

Brain volume estimates from magnetic resonance images (MRIs) are of great interest in multiple sclerosis, and several automated tools have been developed for this purpose. The goal of this study was to assess the agreement between two tools, NeuroQuant® (NQ) and FMRIB’s Integrated Registration Segmentation Tool (FIRST), for estimating overall and regional brain volume in a cohort of patients with a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). In addition, white matter lesion volume was estimated with NQ and the Lesion Segmentation Toolbox (LST).

Methods

One hundred fifteen CIS patients were analysed. Structural images were acquired on a 3.0-T system. The volume agreement between methods (by estimation of the intraclass correlation coefficient) was calculated for the right and left thalamus, caudate, putamen, pallidum, hippocampus, and amygdala, as well as for the total intracranial volume and white matter lesion volume.

Results

In general, the estimated volumes were larger by NQ than FIRST, except for the pallidum. Agreement was low (ICC < 0.40) for the smaller structures (amygdala and pallidum) and fair to good (ICC > 0.40) for the remaining ones. Agreement was fair for lesion volume (ICC = 0.61), with NQ estimates lower than LST.

Conclusions

Agreement between NQ and FIRST brain volume estimates depends on the size of the structure of interest, with larger volumes achieving better agreement. In addition, concordance between the two tools does seem to be dependent on the presence of brain lesions.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Statistics and Bioinformatics Unit at the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute for their statistical assessment and C. Cavallo for English writing support.

Funding

This study was partially supported by Novartis Farmacéutica S.A., Barcelona (Spain), the “Red Española de Esclerosis Múltiple (REEM)” (RD07/0060; RD12/0032), which is sponsored by the Fondo de Investigación Sanitaria (FIS), the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness in Spain and the “Ajuts per donar Suport als Grups de Recerca de Catalunya (2009 SGR 0793)”, which is sponsored by the “Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca” (AGAUR) of the Generalitat de Catalunya in Spain.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroradiology Section, Department of Radiology, Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Research Institute (VHIR), Autonomous University, Psg. Vall d’Hebron 119-129, 08035, Barcelona, Spain

    Deborah Pareto, Manel Alberich, Cristina Auger & Àlex Rovira

  2. Department of Neuroimmunology (Cemcat), Vall d’Hebron University Hospital and Research Institute (VHIR), Autonomous University, Barcelona, Spain

    Jaume Sastre-Garriga, Mar Tintoré & Xavier Montalban

Authors
  1. Deborah Pareto
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  2. Jaume Sastre-Garriga
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  3. Manel Alberich
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  4. Cristina Auger
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  5. Mar Tintoré
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  6. Xavier Montalban
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  7. Àlex Rovira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Deborah Pareto.

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Conflict of interest

DP has received speaking honoraria from Sanofi-Genzyme. JS-G has received travel and accommodation grants from Merck, Novartis, TEVA, Celgene, Roche, Sanofi and Excemed. MA has been sponsored by Novartis Farmacéutica S.A., Barcelona (Spain). CA has received speaking honoraria from Novartis, Stendhal and Biogen. MT has received speaking honoraria and travel expenses from Amirall, Bayer, Biogen Idec, Genzyme, Merck Serono, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, Roche and Teva. XM has received speaking honoraria and travel expenses, and has been a steering committee member of clinical trials or participated in advisory boards of clinical trials for Actelion, Almirall, Bayer, Biogen, Celgene, Hoffmann-La Roche, Merck, Novartis, Oryzon Genomics, Sanofi-Genzyme and Teva Pharmaceutical. AR has served/s on scientific advisory boards for Novartis, Sanofi-Genzyme, Icometrix, and OLEA Medical, and has received speaker honoraria from Bayer, Sanofi-Genzyme, Bracco, Merck-Serono, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Novartis, Roche and Biogen Idec.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Pareto, D., Sastre-Garriga, J., Alberich, M. et al. Brain regional volume estimations with NeuroQuant and FIRST: a study in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome. Neuroradiology 61, 667–674 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-019-02191-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-019-02191-3

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