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Basic MR sequence parameters systematically bias automated brain volume estimation

  • Functional Neuroradiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Introduction

Automated brain MRI morphometry, including hippocampal volumetry for Alzheimer disease, is increasingly recognized as a biomarker. Consequently, a rapidly increasing number of software tools have become available. We tested whether modifications of simple MR protocol parameters typically used in clinical routine systematically bias automated brain MRI segmentation results.

Methods

The study was approved by the local ethical committee and included 20 consecutive patients (13 females, mean age 75.8 ± 13.8 years) undergoing clinical brain MRI at 1.5 T for workup of cognitive decline. We compared three 3D T1 magnetization prepared rapid gradient echo (MPRAGE) sequences with the following parameter settings: ADNI-2 1.2 mm iso-voxel, no image filtering, LOCAL− 1.0 mm iso-voxel no image filtering, LOCAL+ 1.0 mm iso-voxel with image edge enhancement. Brain segmentation was performed by two different and established analysis tools, FreeSurfer and MorphoBox, using standard parameters.

Results

Spatial resolution (1.0 versus 1.2 mm iso-voxel) and modification in contrast resulted in relative estimated volume difference of up to 4.28 % (p < 0.001) in cortical gray matter and 4.16 % (p < 0.01) in hippocampus. Image data filtering resulted in estimated volume difference of up to 5.48 % (p < 0.05) in cortical gray matter.

Conclusion

A simple change of MR parameters, notably spatial resolution, contrast, and filtering, may systematically bias results of automated brain MRI morphometry of up to 4–5 %. This is in the same range as early disease-related brain volume alterations, for example, in Alzheimer disease. Automated brain segmentation software packages should therefore require strict MR parameter selection or include compensatory algorithms to avoid MR parameter-related bias of brain morphometry results.

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Abbreviations

AD:

Alzheimer dementia

ADNI:

Alzheimer Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

cGM:

Cortical gray matter

FDR :

False discovery rate

GM :

Gray matter

LOCAL :

Local imaging protocol with 1 mm iso-voxel resolution

MCI :

Mild cognitive impairment

MPRAGE :

Magnetization prepared rapid gradient echo

MRI :

Magnetic resonance imaging

TIV :

Total intracranial volume

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

      Sven Haller & Karl-Olof Lovblad

    2. Affidea Centre de Diagnostique Radiologique de Carouge CDRC, Geneva, Switzerland

      Sven Haller

    3. Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare HC CEMEA SUI DI BM PI, Lausanne, Switzerland

      Pavel Falkovskiy, Tobias Kober, Alexis Roche & Bénédicte Marechal

    4. Department of Radiology, University Hospital (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

      Pavel Falkovskiy, Reto Meuli, Alexis Roche & Bénédicte Marechal

    5. LTS5, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

      Jean-Philippe Thiran & Tobias Kober

    6. Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Boston, MA, USA

      Gunnar Krueger

    7. University Hospitals of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

      Karl-Olof Lovblad

    Authors
    1. Sven Haller
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    Correspondence to Sven Haller.

    Ethics declarations

    We declare that all human and animal studies have been approved by the Geneva University Ethics Committee and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We declare that the ethics committee waived individual patient consent.

    Conflict of interest

    TK, BM, GK, and AR are full-time or part-time employees of Siemens Healthcare AG.

    Additional information

    SH and PF contributed equally to this work.

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    Haller, S., Falkovskiy, P., Meuli, R. et al. Basic MR sequence parameters systematically bias automated brain volume estimation. Neuroradiology 58, 1153–1160 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-016-1737-3

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-016-1737-3

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