Regional corpus callosum morphometry: effect of field strength and pulse sequence.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether scanning at different field strengths and pulse sequences would influence reproducibility of corpus callosum (CC) morphometric measurements as variations in scanning parameters may result in differences in contrast properties between resulting images that are independent of the underlying tissue but rather reflect the physics of the imaging process.


METHODS
Ten subjects were scanned twice at 3T using magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo imaging (MPRAGE) and modified driven equilibrium Fourier transform (MDEFT) sequences and once at 1.5T using MPRAGE. Cross-sectional area measurements of four callosal regions were performed on midsagittal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sections.


RESULTS
Repeated measures analysis of variance with four regions as dependent variables and three scanning protocols (1.5T MPRAGE, 3T MPRAGE and 3T MDEFT) as independent variables revealed no significant region by protocol interaction: F(6,54) = 0.69, P = 0.52. Reliability measures for (3T MPRAGE/3T MDEFT) and (1.5T MPRAGE/3T MPRAGE; 1.5T MPRAGE/3T MDEFT) comparisons were high, ranging between 0.90 and 0.97.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on our results, combining and comparing CC morphometric data obtained at different field strengths and/or with different pulse sequences appears possible.
Magnetic Resonance and Image Analysis Research Centre, School of Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. Ihssan.abdulkareem@liv.ac.uk
Ihssan A
IA
Abdul-Kareem
Andrej
A
Stancak
Laura M
LM
Parkes
Vanessa
V
Sluming
D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D003287:Contrast Media / Q000494:pharmacology; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012984:Software
D003287:Contrast Media