Reliability of neuroanatomical measurements in a multisite longitudinal study of youth at risk for psychosis

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Tyrone D. Cannon, Yale University; Frank Sun, University of California, Los Angeles; Sarah Jacobson McEwen, University of California, Los Angeles; Xenophon Papademetris, Yale University; George He, Yale University; Theo G. M. van Erp, University of California, Irvine; Aron Jacobson, Yale University; Carrie E. Bearden, University of California, Los Angeles; Elaine Walker, Emory University; Xiaoping Hu, Emory University; Lei Zhou, Emory University; Larry J. Seidman, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Heidi W. Thermenos, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Barbara Cornblatt, Zucker Hillside Hospital; Doreen M. Olvet, Zucker Hillside Hospital; Diana Perkins, University of North Carolina; Aysenil Belger, University of North Carolina; Kristin Cadenhead, University of California, San Diego; Ming Tsuang, University of California, San Diego; Heline Mirzakhanian, University of California, San Diego; Jean Addington, University of Calgary; Richard Frayne, University of Calgary; Scott W. Woods, Yale University; Thomas H. McGlashan, Yale University; R. Todd Constable, Yale University; Maolin Qiu, Yale University; Daniel H. Mathalon, University of California, San Francisco; Paul Thompson, University of California, Los Angeles; Arthur W. Toga, University of California, Los Angeles
• Language: English
• Date: 2014-05-01
• Publisher: Wiley: 12 months
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22338
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Human Brain Mapping
• ISSN: 1065-9471
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 5
• Start Page: 2424
• End Page: 2434
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported by a collaborative U01 award from the National Institute of Mental Health at the National Institutes of Health (MH081902 to TDC; MH081988 to EW; MH081928 to LJS; MH082004 to DP; MH082022 to KC; MH081984 to JA; MH066160 to SWW); by the National Center for Research Resources and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering of the National Institutes of Health through Grant Number 9P41EB015922 (to AWT); and by the Canada Research Chairs program and the Hopewell Professorship in Brain Imaging (to RF).
• Keywords: VOXEL-BASED MORPHOMETRY; reproducibility of results; magnetic resonance imaging; computer-assisted image processing; BRAIN VOLUMES; CORTICAL THICKNESS; Neuroimaging; Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging; Neurosciences; SEGMENTATION; Neurosciences & Neurology; SCAN-RESCAN RELIABILITY; STRUCTURAL MRI; Science & Technology; hippocampus; cerebral cortex; thalamus; neuroanatomy; amygdala; PHANTOM; Life Sciences & Biomedicine
• Research Categories: Engineering, Biomedical; Biology, Neuroscience; Psychology, Clinical

Abstract

Multisite longitudinal neuroimaging designs are used to identify differential brain structural change associated with onset or progression of disease. The reliability of neuroanatomical measurements over time and across sites is a crucial aspect of power in such studies. Prior work has found that while within-site reliabilities of neuroanatomical measurements are excellent, between-site reliability is generally more modest. Factors that may increase between-site reliability include standardization of scanner platform and sequence parameters and correction for between-scanner variations in gradient nonlinearities. Factors that may improve both between- and within-site reliability include use of registration algorithms that account for individual differences in cortical patterning and shape. In this study 8 healthy volunteers were scanned twice on successive days at 8 sites participating in the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study (NAPLS). All sites employed 3 Tesla scanners and standardized acquisition parameters. Site accounted for 2 to 30% of the total variance in neuroanatomical measurements. However, site-related variations were trivial (<1%) among sites using the same scanner model and 12-channel coil or when correcting for between-scanner differences in gradient nonlinearity and scaling. Adjusting for individual differences in sulcal-gyral geometries yielded measurements with greater reliabilities than those obtained using an automated approach. Neuroimaging can be performed across multiple sites at the same level of reliability as at a single site, achieving within- and between-site reliabilities of 0.95 or greater for gray matter density in the majority of voxels in the prefrontal and temporal cortical surfaces as well as for the volumes of most subcortical structures.